President Lim Byung-yon of Lotte Chemical Co. with the photos of the company’s petrochemical plants in background. (Photo: Lotte Chemical)

President Lim Byung-yon of Lotte Chemical said his goal is to vault the company into the top 7 chemical companies in the world by 2030.

Lim is going to do it by collecting the entire energy and the concentration of the company to achieve the target, he said.
He made the statement thru e-mails and the in-house Intranet network on Sept. 10, just prior to Chuseok, the national holiday, which fell on Sept. 13, to thank the entire company for their cooperation and hard work in the past nine months since he took over the top job for the company.

“I am very proud of all of the employees for a job well-done as the ethylene cracker and ethylene glycol plants have been completed and dedicated, in addition to the joint-venture with an oil refiner and domestic investments scheduled to this year have been completed without a hitch, thanks to your hard work,” the CEO said in the statement.

By the target year of 2030, Lotte Chemical’s annual production would be around 50 trillion won to rank the No. 7 in the world, he said, adding that he will work with all of you at the frontline and back you up from behind. CEO Lim is a chemistry graduate of Seoul National University.

He joined Honam Petrochemical Co. (now Lotte Chemical) in 1989.

Lim was promoted to take over as president in January after coming up thru the ranks, including positions as director of the Vision Strategy Office of the Policy Headquarters and director of the Value Management Office.

Lotte Chemical completed a huge petrochemical complex in the U.S. in May by investing 5.3 trillion won, which is set to produce ethylene so called the “rice,” of the petrochemical industry to the tune of 1 million tons annually with shale gas supplied locally.

In the same month, the company signed an agreement with Hyundai Oilbank to jointly build a heavy oil naphtha cracking center at the investment of 2.7 trillion won. The company is in the middle of expanding the capacities of its meta-xylene plant and poly-carbonate plant in Yeosu and Ulsan at the investment of 370 billion won.

Lotte Chemical Corp., a major chemical unit under Lotte Group, said recently it will establish a petrochemical joint venture with GS Energy Co., an energy-specialized holding company of GS Group.

Lotte Chemical and GS Energy signed an agreement to form a joint venture, tentatively named Lotte-GS Chemical Company, this year to produce chemical compounds like bisphenol A (BPA) and C4 fraction. Lotte Chemical will have a 51 percent stake in the joint venture, with the rest to be owned by GS Energy.

The two companies will invest a total of 800 billion won ($677 million) by 2023 to build a plant in Yeosu, 450 kilometers south of Seoul, that can produce 200,000 tons of BPA and 210,000 tons of C4 fraction products a year. Lotte Chemical said the joint venture is expected to post 1 trillion won in sales and 100 billion won in operating profit, while creating 7,700 jobs.

BPA is a key material for polycarbonate plastics used in electronic and medical products. C4 fraction is a chemical compound used for making butadiene (BD) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA). Lotte Chemical said it will receive BPA products from the joint company to enhance the price competitiveness of its polycarbonates, while expanding its C4 fraction business.

GS Energy said its refining unit, GS Caltex Corp., will supply materials like propylene and benzene for the joint venture.
Lotte Chemical said in a regulatory filing on Aug. 22 that its management had agreed to merge with wholly owned subsidiary Lotte Advanced Materials.

Seoul-based Lotte Chemical’s board of directors agreed on a planned market extension merger between two subsidiaries of the Korean-Japanese Lotte conglomerate. Once the merger takes place, Lotte Advanced Materials will be merged into Lotte Chemical. The merger is expected to be complete by January 2020, following a shareholders’ meeting in November.

Dissenting shareholders of Lotte Chemical may present veto rights during Sept. 6-20. The merger will be scrapped if opposing stakeholders account for a combined stake of over 20 percent.

Lotte Chemical’s major shareholders include Lotte Corp. with 23.24 percent, Lotte Property & Development with 20 percent and Lotte Holdings with 9.3 percent. Minor shareholders own 42.59 percent of Lotte Chemical.

Lotte Advanced Chemicals is based in the coastal city of Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.

Both Lotte Chemical and Lotte Advanced Materials have presence in plastic polymer market. Lotte Chemical produces polyethylene and polypropylene, while Lotte Advanced Materials makes acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and polycarbonate.