LG Chem Builds Plant for PVC Raw Materials in China
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
LG Chem, the top South Korean chemicals maker, said on Friday that it has built a plant for PVC (polyvinyl chloride) raw materials in China at a cost of $300 million (281 billion won), to directly produce plastics in the neighboring country.
LG Bohai, the firm’s Chinese unit, has completed construction of the plant on a 500,000 square meter site in Tianjin Province for production of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and ethylene dichloride (EDC), the two main ingredients for PVC.
Company officials expected the Chinese plant will produce about 350,000 tons of VCM and 300,000 tons of EDC per year, bringing the company’s annual PVC output to a total of 920,000 tons, the world's sixth largest in capacity.
``We aim to expand the annual PVC production at the Chinese plant up to 400,000 tons by 2008,’’ a company spokesman said. Currently, LG Chem has an annual capacity of 580,000 tons at home.
PVC is a key building block used to produce plastics. PVC demand in China has been soaring at an average of 13 percent annually, riding on high growth rates in recent years, to top 10 million tons in 2006.
LG Bohai will receive ethylene from LG Chem’s Daesan factory and produce VCM, all of which will be delivered to LG Dagu, the South Korean chemical company’s PVC unit in China, according to the spokesman.
``LG Chem strengthened its global competitiveness with the LG Bohai plant, which completed the vertical management system for the PVC business in China,’’ LG Chem President & CEO Kim Bahn-suk said in a completion ceremony in Tianjin.