MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Corp., a petrochemical unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, said Friday it will spend 250 billion won (USD211.4 million) to expand its domestic production line of ethylene oxide adduct (EOA), according to Kemicalinfo.
The expansion of the production line in Daesan, a county in the central South Chungcheong Province, will help boost its EOA production capacity by an annual 150,000 tons to 480,000 tons globally, the company said in a release.
It will also increase the production of high-purity ethylene oxide (HPEO), a main source of EOA, to 250,000 tons, the company said.
EOA is an ethylene-based ingredient used in a chemical agent that reduces water in concrete used for the construction of large structures, such as skyscrapers, piers and dams. The agent reduces the water usage by 30%, which enhances the durability of the concrete.
Lotte Chemical invested 120 billion won in January to expand the EOA production by 100,000 tons at its Yeosu factory on the country’s southern coast.
Currently, the Daesan factory has production capacity of 50,000 tons, with the Yeosu factory touting 230,000 tons and a China-based factory having 50,000 tons.
As MRC informed before, Lotte Chemical shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker in Daesan for an annual maintenance on 15 May, 2021. This cracker with the capacity of 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 550,000 mt/year of propylene resumed production on 23 June, 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers in South Korea. One cracker is located in Daesan county in Seosan which can produce 1.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene with the other 1.2 million tonnes per year cracker in the southwestern city of Yeosu.
MRC