Mainstream Pine Products has bought Ingevity's crude tall oil (CTO) fractionation plant in DeRidder, Louisiana, the US-based pine chemicals producer said.
"We are in the process of assessing what we have there and how we will expand our business with those assets," said Mainstream president and chief executive Rob Helwick. "This will include an objective to utilise the refinery assets at the site, and we are working on that timeline.
"Prior to that, we plan to perform other basic operations at the site all related to pine chemicals," he said.
The purchase adds to Mainstream's US CTO refining capacity, which includes the North Charleston unit in South Carolina that it also acquired from Ingevity.
DeRidder was one of two CTO refining facilities that Ingevity shut in recent years. Its closure of DeRidder, in 2024, and the conversion of a facility in Crossett, Arkansas, in 2023 to run 100pc on non-tall oil fatty acids, cut US CTO refining capacity by 300,000t, sources have estimated.
US domestic CTO supply has been sufficient to meet domestic refining capacity. Plant additions and increased export demand could further tighten supply and demand balances.
