US Westlake buys PVC pipe plant in court auction for $6.3m

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--US polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer Westlake won a court auction to buy a Janesville pipe plant in Wisconsin from pipe maker Freedom Plastics for $6.3m (€4.9m), the company said on Wednesday.

Janesville-based Freedom Plastics went into court-supervised receivership in February in order to divest itself and pay off creditors.

The facility will add to Westlake’s 10 PVC pipe plants in the US, and Westlake spokesman David Hansen said the Janesville plant will be one of the larger pipe plants operated by the company.

“We are happy to have won this auction and we are evaluating where this facility will fit into our overall scheme,” Hansen said, adding that Westlake plans to close on the sale sometime next week.

An estimate of PVC pipe production capacity at the Janesville facility was not available.

Freedom Plastics’ assets were auctioned in a Wisconsin court on Tuesday to four companies including Westlake for a total of $11.5m, according to local newspaper The Janesville Gazette.

($1 = €0.77)