MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Korea Petrochemical Ind. Co., LTD (KPIC) aims to expand its ethylene production capacity by the first half of 2017, company CEO Jeong Young Tae said.
Jeong said that KPIC’s ethylene capacity expansion for its Ulsan-based Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) is ongoing and is expected to start commercial operation from Jun 1, 2017, South Korea’s Seoul Economic Daily reported.
Currently, KPIC produces about 470,000 mt/year of ethylene from its Ulsan-based NCC. With the ongoing capacity expansion, the company will be adding 330,000 mt/year of ethylene, and its combined ethylene capacity will reach 800,000 mt/year.
KPIC is one of the key producers of ethylene in South Korea. The company’s ethylene capacity accounts for about 6% of total ethylene production in South Korea.
When the capacity expansion is completed, however, the company’s market share will be increased to nearly 10%.
As MRC wrote before, in July 2015, KPIC awarded GS Engineering & Construction a USD270-million contract to increase ethylene capacity to 800,000 t/y and aromatics capacity to 300,000 t/y from 220,000 t/y currently. The project also includes the capacity to produce 150,000 t/y of propylene.
MRC