North American Pipe Corp. (Houston) has acquired a majority of the assets of Freedom Plastics Inc.’s Janesville, WI polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe plant, boosting its total capacity to more than 1 billion lb/yr. North American Pipe, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Westlake Chemical Corp., expects to begin limited production at the site over the next several months, according to spokesman David Hansen. Freedom had been scaling back operations at the site over the preceding months, according to Hansen, and it was idle at the time of acquisition. The facility operated under Freedom with approximately 155 employees, 17 lines, and a total capacity of 190 million lb/yr.

The plant extrudes PVC pipe in diameters up to 24 inches for use in a variety of applications including sewer, water, plumbing, and irrigation. North American Pipe currently operates nine PVC pipe plants throughout the U.S., including the recently completed Calvert City, KY and Yucca, AZ facilities.

According to the Janesville Gazette, Westlake Chemical joined three other buyers of Freedom assets, paying $6.3 million for the Janesville pipe manufacturing division. Harrington Corp. (Lynchburg, V) purchased the Janesville fabrication division for $1 million; Silver-Line Plastics (Asheville, NC) paid $3.8 million for its Florida division; and NACO Industries (Logan, UT) paid Freedom $400,000 for equipment in Idaho. Freedom was auctioned off on March 18 in Rock County, WI. —[email protected]