SK Global Chemical renamed to SK Geo Centric

By Baek Byung-yeul

SK Global Chemical has changed its company name to SK Geo Centric (SKGC) in an effort to focus on more eco-friendly material business, including plastic waste recycling, the chemical material unit of SK Innovation said Tuesday.

The company said it has decided to use the new name Geo Centric starting from September. “SK Geo Centric combined 'geo,' which refers to earth and soil and 'centric,' meaning center, to put the global environment first and express our strong will to solve the problem of waste plastic pollution,” the company said.

Sharing the company's vision, the company's CEO Na Kyung-soo said SKGC aims to create “eco-friendly innovation centered on the Earth.”

“We chose new company name Geo Centric to transform the company from Korea's first petrochemical company to the world's best urban oil company based on recycling of waste plastic and to make a more eco-friendly world,” the CEO said.

With the new company name, SKGC plans to invest around 5 trillion won ($4.3 billion) by 2025 in securing capacity for plastic waste treatment facilities and expanding eco-friendly materials that are equivalent to the company's domestic plastic production. By 2027, the firm sets a goal of recycling 2.5 million tons of plastic waste, which accounts for about 20 percent of plastic waste finding its way into the oceans.

“The annual growth rate of the recycling plastic market is estimated at 12 percent until 2030. We think the business has great potential as the size of the plastic waste recycling market is forecast to grow to 600 trillion won by 2050,” Na said. “In 2025, we will create 600 billion won worth of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin to completely transform into a green company.”

To secure the next-generation of plastic waste treatment tech, SKGC has signed partnerships with both domestic and overseas companies and has been developing its own plastic pyrolysis technologies.

The company will also build a recycling cluster that can handle all stages of the process of recycling plastic waste through cooperation with the government and small and medium-sized companies.

In addition, SKGC aims to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding eco-friendly materials and raw materials that are effective in reducing plastic usage. The company is planning to increase its annual production capacity of eco-friendly materials to 1.9 million tons by 2025 from the current capacity of 500,000 tons.