September 05, 2025 [Argus Media]- US specialty-chemicals producer Ingevity has agreed to sell its North Charleston crude tall oil (CTO) refinery and most of its industrial specialties product line to Mainstream Pine Products.

The cash transaction includes $110mn and an up-to $19mn contingent payment based on future business performance, Ingevity said today.

The transaction is subject to customary and agreed-upon closing conditions and is expected to close by early 2026, Ingevity said. The assets being sold to Mainstream are on Ingevity’s North Charleston performance chemicals campus in South Carolina.

The companies have also entered into a series of agreements, including Mainstream supplying certain refinery products to Ingevity’s road technologies product line.

The companies also entered a toll-manufacturing deal for Ingevity to use non-refinery assets at the site to derivatise certain industrial specialties for Mainstream. Ingevity will provide certain critical operating services to Mainstream at the North Charleston CTO refinery after the deal closes, Ingevity said.

Mainstream previously planned a $90mn CTO fractionation site at the Charleston International Manufacturing Center in Berkeley County, South Carolina, with operations expected to start in 2023.

The site was to have a 110,000 t/yr CTO refining capacity, the company said at the time, but this never materialised.

The Ingevity North Charleston site being sold has an estimated 110,000-120,000 t/yr CTO fractionation capacity, according to market participants.

CTO is a byproduct of the softwood kraft pulping process.