VERBIO Diesel Canada Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany-headed biofuels producer VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG, has announced that it has successfully closed on the acquisition of a biodiesel facility located in Dain City, Ontario (ON), Canada."This opens up promising strategic and economic perspectives for further internationalization making VERBIO more independent from the ups and downs of the European biofuels market”, said Theodor Niesmann, COO, VERBIO.
In May 2019, VERBIO announced that it had signed a purchase agreement with Atlantic Biodiesel Corporation to acquire a biodiesel production plant in Dain City. Closing was subject to certain conditions that have now been fulfilled and the transaction, the value of which has not been disclosed, was completed on July 5, 2019.
The plant has an annual production capacity of approximately 150 000 tonnes of biodiesel and 18 000 tonnes of raw glycerine. Production is likely to be recommenced in August 2019.
Promoting international growth and globalization
The political conditions leave us with only little potential for growth in the German biofuels market, hence our expansion focus is on Asia and North America. The new biodiesel facility is perfectly equipped to implement our leading technology. Furthermore, we retain well-experienced employees who operated production in the past. Another advantage of the plant is the excellent connection to the railway infrastructure making it easy to bring in raw materials and deliver goods to the market quickly. The total package convinced us. We are positive that Dain City will be a perfect base for VERBIO to enter into the North American biodiesel market, said Theodor Niesmann COO of VERBIO.
Biodiesel and crude glycerin capacities significantly increased
North American biodiesel is based on soybean and canola oil. Canola is similar to rapeseed oil which is mainly used for European biodiesel production. The joint product glycerine is used in the cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical industries.
VERBIO has operated two biodiesel plants in Germany since 2001. The combined annual production capacity amounts to 470 000 tonnes of biodiesel. Together with the additional capacity of the Canadian plant, VERBIO’s total production capacity increases to around 620 000 tonnes of biodiesel per year.
The North American biofuels market has a demand of approximately nine million tonnes of biodiesel each year – and that number is continuing to rise. This opens up promising strategic and economic perspectives for further internationalization making VERBIO more independent from the ups and downs of the European biofuels market, concluded Theodor Niesmann.
