Wescast Industries Inc. agreed to sell the land, buildings, and most of the production equipment of its idle foundry in Brantford, ON, to Gemini Fire Protection Solutions Inc. for an estimated $21.7 million (C$26.3 million.)

Gemini is a Canadian manufacturer of commercial and industrial fire-protection products.

Brampton, ON-based Wescast claims to be the world’s largest supplier of exhaust manifolds for passenger cars and light trucks. It designs, casts, machines and assembles iron manifolds, turbo-charger housings, and integrated turbo manifolds at seven plants in Canada, the U.S., and Hungary. It also has a technical development center in Canada, and sales and design centers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Wescast idled its Brantford plant in February as part of optimization effort, to lower operating costs and increase utilization rates for its North American foundries. It states the sale is due to close in the third quarter, once some commercial and regulatory conditions are met.

"We are pleased that we have been able to complete the sale of the Brantford foundry in a manner that minimizes the impact to current employees and the Brantford community," said Ed Frackowiak, Wescast chairman and CEO. "This sale is also a positive step in the rationalization of our North American foundry capacity as part of our vision to be the leading provider of sales and technology for exhaust manifolds and turbo charger housings in North America, Europe and Asia."