International Process Plants has entered an agreement to market the ammonia, methanol and melamine plants at BASF’s Ludwigshafen Verbund site in Germany, the company announced.
The acquisition includes complete production facilities for 380,000 metric tons of ammonia per year; 165,000 metric tons of methanol per year; and 51,000 metric tons of melamine per year.
IPP officials said they will offer these world-class production units for relocation and sale.
“We are excited to add these world-class assets to our portfolio of excellent plants for relocation,” IPP President Ronald Gale said. “These facilities represent a significant opportunity for companies seeking to expand their production capacity with existing assets that operate at a high level of energy and raw material efficiency.”
International Process Plants, based in Princeton Junction, is a global leader in the purchase and supply of used, new and rebuilt process plants and equipment, dedicated to helping manufacturers save time and money. BASF, which is based in Germany and has its North American headquarters in Florham Park, is a global giant in chemical production.
Brad Faleska, IPP’s vice president of business development, said the opportunity to work with BASF cements IPP’s reputation as a global leader in the acquisition and sale of process plants and equipment.
The formal announcement was made by BASF on Monday morning. The companies agreed to not disclose terms, according to the BASF release. IPP is offering information here.
“BASF is one of the largest and most important companies in the world — a mainstay in the Fortune 100 with operations in almost every country in the world,” Ross Gale, IPP’s vice president of acquisitions, said. “We look forward to marketing this equipment and these plants that were in operation through 2023 as we continue to create a sustainable lifecycle for manufacturing assets.
“When BASF made the decision to wind down these units to ensure the competitiveness of its largest Verbund site in a region where energy costs are structurally too high to make these building block chemicals, we were grateful they chose IPP as a partner.”
IPP officials said they are committed to finding these assets a new home with a sufficient and economic gas supply or as part of a green chemicals project.
“BASF is partnering with IPP on the divestment of the idled ammonia, methanol and melamine plants to ensure that these well-maintained plants are made available and sustained for chemical production,” BASF executive Ruediger von Watzdorf said. “This represents a more sustainable and economic approach to the disposition of these process units, and with a net benefit to the global process industry.”
IPP, which has offices in 14 countries, is a global leader in the purchase and supply of complete plant sites, process units/systems and used, new and rebuilt major pieces of process equipment. Its current holdings include 17 complete plant sites, 110 plants for relocation and 15,000 equipment process systems and major pieces of equipment.
The BASF deal is the fourth major acquisition IPP has made in recent months.
In December, IPP closed on its acquisition of the former Novartis pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Grimsby, England. In March, IPP acquired a fermentation plant in Little Falls, Minnesota, from Superbrewed Food.
Earlier this month, it closed a deal on a Henkel detergent manufacturing plant in Lomazzo, Italy, in collaboration with Maynards.
Earlier this year, IPP launched Gale Process Solutions, marking its entry into new equipment manufacturing and sales. GPS sells new alloy process equipment including reactors, heat exchangers, tanks, filters, mixers, centrifuges and dryers — including its proprietary Porcupine dryer.
