LG Chem’s naphtha cracking center in Yeosu, 455 kilometers southwest of Seoul. (image: LG Chem Ltd.)
SEOUL, Jul. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — LG Chem Ltd., South Korea’s biggest chemical company by sales, said Monday it will invest 2.8 trillion won (US$2.4 billion) to expand its local naphtha cracking center (NCC) and polyolefin (PO) plant by 2021.
The company will spend 2.6 trillion won to increase output capacity of the NCC and the PO plant in Yeosu, 455 kilometers southwest of Seoul, by 800,000 tons each. It will inject the remaining 200 billion won into a “future materials” production facility in Dangjin, 120 km south of Seoul, LG Chem said in a statement.
The expanded NCC will boost production capacity of ethylene to 3.3 million tons, making it the largest local producer of the key material.
Ethylene is the building block for a vast range of chemicals from plastics to antifreeze solutions and solvents.
In 2018, LG Chem aims to achieve sales of 26.9 trillion won, while planning 3.8 trillion won in capital expenditure.
Its net profit jumped 58 percent to 2.02 trillion won in 2017 from 1.28 trillion won a year ago. Operating profit also climbed 47 percent on-year to 2.93 trillion won on sales of 25.7 trillion won, a 24 percent on-year gain.
(Yonhap)
