Thailand’s Indorama Ventures, the world’s largest PET producer, has agreed to buy the assets of Artlant PTA in Portugal for an undisclosed sum.  The PTA plant in the Sines Industrial Complex is one of Europe’s largest with a capacity of 700,000 t/y.

“Artlant fortifies our core PTA business and is a part of our successful vertical integration strategy. We can apply our scale and operational expertise while taking advantage of cost synergies and capture the opportunity for future growth and expansion,” said Aloke Lohia, group CEO of Indorama Ventures.

Indorama will also acquire the assets of adjacent utilities provider, Artelia Ambiente, which supplies electricity, steam, demineralised water, wastewater treatment and hydrogen. The Thai company said it will benefit by securing energy supply to Artlant and will sell any excess power to the grid. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.

The Sines facility was formerly run by Spanish PET packaging group La Seda de Barcelona (LSB), which went bankrupt in January 2014. In the aftermath, the plant shut, was restarted and idled several times as the company’s financial woes deepened.

Artlant was declared insolvent by a Lisbon regional court in July of this year, with debts in the high triple-digit million range.