Alpek closing North Carolina PET plant

Major PET producer Alpek is closing a North Carolina plant that includes both virgin and RPET production, with operations to cease by July 31.

The Fayetteville site has a PET resin capacity of 170,000 metric tons a year and 64,000 metric tons of RPET flake, according to a press release. Of the company’s virgin PET resin capacity, the site represents 13% in the U.S., 10% in North America and 5.5% globally. Alpek is headquartered in Mexico and is also known as DAK Americas. 

The company noted that the site was producing an average of 35,000 metric tons of RPET flake annually. 

The closure will leave the company with 181,000 metric tons of RPET flake capacity between its Indiana and Pennsylvania plants and 106,000 metric tons of RPET pellet production, distributed among Indiana, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. 

“This decision is aligned with Alpek’s long-term strategy to optimize its global footprint and focus on its more competitive and scalable assets,” Alpek said in the May 30 press release. “The Company will reallocate its production to continue serving its customers with high quality products and sustainable solutions by leveraging its regional and global network.”

In the April investor call, CEO Jorge Young indicated that the company’s integrated PTA/PET locations were strongest “with more advantages,” and that Alpek’s smaller, older plants “are the ones that we tend to look at constantly” for closure. 

“We still have a few of those assets, those tend to be the smaller assets in terms of capacity, and if we do an adjustment in those assets, it will likely come with either a de-bottleneck or increased production in the stronger, more integrated assets,” he said. 

Previously, Alpek closed its Cooper River plant in South Carolina and its Monterrey polyester filament plant in Mexico, both announced in 2023. 

The Columbia and Cosoleacaque sites in South Carolina and Mexico, respectively, are Alpek’s only integrated sites in North America, and neither includes RPET production. 

During the April investor call, Young said, “I think if the tariffs stay to some level, I think they will eventually benefit local production,” and that in addition to “significant assets in the US,” the company benefits from the existing North American free trade agreement, which exempts products moving between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. 

Young added that some imported PET feedstocks — referring to paraxylene and its derivative PTA, which accounts for about 85% of PET composition — would be subject to a 10% tariff, but Alpek could “redirect” those commodities to have U.S. origin. “Those might have some logistics minor inefficiencies, but that’s another string on another part of the story on the tariffs,” he said. 

In addition, Alpek imports PET sheet from its Octal holdings in Oman, which is included in the list of countries subject to a 10% tariff. 

“I think we can mitigate that through actions in the marketplace and other things. And we expect that over the following months an agreement will be reached to restore the free trade agreement between the U.S. and Oman,” Young said.