South Korean Lotte Group's KP Chemical Plans to Build a Purified Terephthalic Acid Plant in China

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). KP Chemical, the petrochemical arm of Korea's retail giant Lotte Group, is planning to invest $350 million to build a purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province, East China, with Chinese polyester maker Tongkun Group Company (Tongkun city, Zhejiang pronvince).

PTA is an element used in polyester textile manufacturing and China is the main export target of Korea. This new plant has a production capacity of 800 million tons per year and it is now waiting for Chinese government approval. It is to be located in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province, and will be put into operation at the end of 2009 or in 2010 if it gains approval from Chinese government by the end of this year.

KP Chemical is carefully studying the project at present and sources from inside the company say that the company will announce new developments in the upcoming six months if there are any.

Tongkun Group’s history dates back to the 1980s when it was a factory manufacturing chemical fibers. Through years of development and reform, Tongkun Group has become a comprehensive company, whose businesses diversify into fields like real estate, agriculture, printing and dyeing, while its core business remains the production of terylene filament and polyester chips.

Tongkun Group now has an annual production capacity of 720,000 tons of polyester products as well as 600,000 tons of chemical filament fiber. Meanwhile, Tongkun Group is the stakeholder in 26 companies and boasts a working staff of 7,000 people and a total asset of nearly $366 million.

Lotte is one of South Korea’s top five conglomerates and it bought KP Chemical in 2004. At the beginning of this year, Lotte Group invested $30 million and established Lotte (China) Investment Company, Limited in Shanghai. This is Lotte’s first solely funded company in China and it’s responsible for all of Lotte’s investment activities in China.

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