KMCO acquired from bankruptcy by ALTIVIA

Parking lots almost empty as announcement of sale of KMCO LP from bankruptcy is made. The plant is to be back in operation later this year.
Parking lots almost empty as announcement of sale of KMCO LP from bankruptcy is made. The plant is to be back in operation later this year.

CROSBY– ALTIVIA Oxide Chemicals, LLC, an affiliate of ALTIVIA Petrochemicals, Monday announced that it acquired KMCO LP on Friday and its associated chemical ethoxylation manufacturing assets, according to the company in a June 1 press release.

KMCO LP was bought from bankruptcy and the price was low except for over $600,000 of property taxes and millions of dollars in liabilities to creditors.

“ALTIVIA plans a $25 million process safety and control systems upgrade to the facilities and will start production in two new oxide reactors by the end of this year.” the release stated.

“We have completed a detailed evaluation of these assets and are looking forward to starting production by year end. The reaction chemistries in Crosby are complementary to ALTIVIA’s current product offerings and will provide our customers important sourcing options,” said ALTIVIA’s Chief Executive Officer J. Michael Jusbasche. “The market for oxylation tolling and custom manufacturing services will now have available a state-of-the-art facility in the U.S. Gulf Coast.”

The facilities, located on 160 acres near Houston, include 31 reaction and distillation trains with capacity for Ethylene and Propylene Oxide reactions as well as a broad range of organic reactions including polymerization, neutralization, and condensation. Products include surfactants, lubricant additives, fuel additives, and a variety of ethoxylation and propoxylation based intermediates. Its products service the coatings, automotive, fuels and lubricants, and surfactant industries.

An explosion April 2, 2019 killed one worker and injured dozens of others, two critically. That following a series of renovations to make the plant more safe and neighbor friendly including putting generators atop telephone poles and other seemingly excentric safety measures. None of those measures stayed the hand of Harris County and individuals that filed suit. A previous fire related mishap killed an OSHA worker.

KMCO ownership since 2012, Owner Research Group Chemical Holdings, then stated through managing partner, John Foley, that the explosion was of a nature that it could have happened anywhere.

KMCO LP was the largest customer of Crosby Municipal Utility District and the loss of revenue from the cut backs in May of 2019 stagnated local water development allocations.

KMCO LP was founded by Artie McFaren in 1979.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, privately held ALTIVIA was founded in 1986 and today operates four separate businesses.

ALTIVIA Petrochemicals, with facilities in Haverhill, Ohio is the third largest merchant producer of Phenol, Acetone and Alpha Methylstyrene in the Americas; ALTIVIA Specialty Chemicals, the largest producers of Phosgene derivative intermediates in the Americas, including chloroformates and acid chlorides, serving pharmaceutical, organic peroxide and agricultural markets from its operations in LaPorte, Texas; ALTIVIA Ketones & Additives, a producer of ketones and carbinols at its facilities in Institute, West Virginia. This business was acquired from The Dow Chemical Company in 2019 and it services the coatings, industrial and automotive lubricants and adhesives industries.

ALTIVIA Chemicals, a producer of iron-based salts serving municipal and industrial customers with a broad range of chemical solutions, including products formulated for specific water treatment applications.