GS Caltex sets up Czech unit

By Kang Seung-woo

GS Caltex, the country’s second-largest refiner, will build a polymer compounds producing factory in the Czech Republic to expand its overseas business portfolio, the company said Tuesday.

The new unit, GS Caltex Czech, will be the first venture among local players in the central European country players, and will focus on producing and selling the functional plastics widely used in manufacturing cars and home appliances.

GS Caltex plans to start constructing the plant in Karvina, some 293 kilometers east of Prague, later this year and expects to annual sales of around 100 billion won from 2014.

“Based on our technology acquired from the oil refining industry, GS Caltex has tapped into the European petrochemical industry for the first time among Korean companies,” said a company official.

Europe is one of the biggest markets for the product and demand has reached 1.2 million tons per year, the company noted.

GS Caltex, headed by Chairman Hur Dong-soo, also entered the Chinese market in 2006.

The firm, which built a plant with an annual production capacity of 40,000 tons five year ago in Langfang, Hebei Province, has supplied polymer compounds to China and neighboring nations such as Russia, Taiwan and Thailand. It also founded another Chinese unit in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province last year.