LONDON (ICIS)--Lotte Chemical UK's plans to expand its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) operations at Wilton in northeast England to 350,000 tonnes/year has received board approval, a company source confirmed on Friday.
"The expansion and further integration in C8 enables us to be competitive in the wider European market as we go forward," said Lotte Chemical UK business director Mark Kenrick.
Work to add a new 200,000 tonne/year plant alongside the existing 150,000 tonne/year facility is due for completion by the third or fourth quarter of 2013, the company said in an earlier press release. No financial details were disclosed.
In the press release SY Huh, president of Lotte's parent company KP, said the plan demonstrated KP's ambition to become "an Asia Top 10 Global Group by 2018".
Lotte Chemical UK has been given a conditional regional growth fund (RGF) offer by the UK government, which is expected to be fully confirmed by the end of 2011.
According to urban regeneration company Tees Valley Unlimited, Lotte Chemical UK has been given approval for ?6.7m (┬7.7m, $10.3m) of RGF support towards the construction of a new PET plant.
Lotte Chemical UK manufactures and sells polyester intermediate PTA and PET resin for use in the packaging industry.
Plans to expand at Lotte Chemical UK were first indicated as a possibility to ICIS in March. This announcement and the expansion plans of other PET and upstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA)producers have prompted concern among industry players that the market will be oversupplied.
"The market won't be able to absorb it all," one supplier said, echoing comments from others.