PolyMirae has agreed to partner with SK Advanced to build a new 400,000 ton/year polypropylene plant in South Korea.
The two companies will form a joint venture to build the new plant, which is expected to expand PolyMirae’s polypropylene production capacity in the country.
Planned to be built located in the southeastern port city of Ulsan, the project construction is subject regulatory filings and permitting reviews.
PolyMirae is a joint venture 50-50 joint venture of US-based plastics, chemicals and refining company LyondellBasell and Daelim, a construction and petrochemical company in South Korea.
The new joint venture plans to commence construction on the project in January 2019 with commissioning scheduled in the first half of 2021.
LyondellBasell joint ventures and international marketing vice-president James Seward said: “Through direct investment or through a joint venture such as PolyMirae, we continue to build production capacity to serve rapidly growing end markets in Asia.
“With the addition of this joint venture’s capacity, PolyMirae will ensure that automotive manufacturers in South Korea and throughout Asia will continue to be able to locally source the polypropylene they need to advance the next generation of fuel efficient vehicles, and that LyondellBasell will gain access to additional export volumes to ensure our global production footprint will continue to grow alongside our customer base.”
Claimed to be one of the largest of its kind in Asia, the new polypropylene plant will feature LyondellBasell’s Spheripol technology.
The plant will manufacture polypropylene which will be used in automotive components, injection molding, blow molding and packaging film.
PolyMirae plans to sell some of the polypropylene produced at the plant to compounding companies in South Korea and the broader region.
PolyMirae was established in 2000 to produce and supply the polypropylene in Asia.