DAK Americas (Charlotte, North Carolina / USA; www.dakamericas.com), subsidiary of leading PET producer Alpek (Mexico City / Mexico; www.alpek.com), has agreed to acquire a 45,000 t/y rPET plant from Perpetual Recycling Solutions (Richmond, Indiana / USA; www.perpetualrpet.com) for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2019. Alpek said output of the acquired facility will complement the current food-grade PET recycling capacity of another group company, Alpek Polyester, at Pacheco / Argentina. Alpek also owns a polyester fibre-grade recycling plant at Fayetteville, North Carolina, as part of a joint venture.

Commenting on the transaction, Jon McNaull, vice president of PET resins at DAK Americas, said, "The acquisition of Perpetual and additional rPET capacity demonstrates Alpek Polyester's ongoing commitment to sustainable product offerings to meet growing customer and consumer demand for rPET content." By its own account, Perpetual can process up to 72,000 t of post-consumer PET waste annually.

Alpek, with annual sales of just over USD 5 bn, counts as the world’s second largest PET producer, behind Thailand’s Indorama Ventures (IVL, Bangkok; www.indoramaventures.com). The Mexican group, which operates 26 production facilities in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the US, is one of the three partners in CC Polymers, the joint acquisition vehicle for the Corpus Christi, Texas, PET/PTA complex of M&G USA, a subsidiary of the insolvent Italian company formerly known as Mossi & Ghisolfi – see Plasteurope.com of 09.01.2019. Indorama and Far Eastern New Century (FENC, Taipei / Taiwan; www.fenc.com) are the other partners.