Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin exchanges views on officials with Lotte Fine Chemical’s plant in Incheon as he toured the work site on May 16. (Photos: Lotte Group)

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin stressed the need to invest in green materials and battery materials as the group’s future growth drivers as he made an inspection tour of Lotte Fine Chemical and Lotte Aluminium plants of late. Chairman Shin toured Lotte Fine Chemical’s plant in Incheon and Lotte Aluminium’s Ansan No. 1 plant at the Banweol Industrial Complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do to inspect their operation on May 15.

At that time, Shin said, Lotte companies will be reborn as ones with global competitiveness by expanding investments into value-added specialty and battery materials. He called for securing sustainable growth engines by spearheading the development of new business opportunities related to ESG.

Lotte Fine Chemical’s plant in Incheon is the nation’s sole plant specializing in the production of cellulose relatives for edible and medical uses. The plant, whose expansion has been finished recently, is going to be put into commercial operation.

Chairman Shin inspected production facilities and exchanged views on the direction of the development of green materials such as high-performance cellulose products with field officials.

Lotte Fine Chemical began to expand facilities of its Incheon plant in November 2019 following the expansion of the markets of coating agents for vegetable and medical uses and meat replacements.

The plant now produces “Any Coat,” a raw material for vegetable and medical use coating and capsules and “Any Any,” an essential additive for creating meat replacement tastes.

If the expanded facilities are put into operation, it will raise Lotte Fine Chemical’s cellulose production capacity from current 8,000 tons to 10,000 tons.

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin gets a briefing on a process of secondary battery materials as he made an inspection tour of Lotte Aluminium’s Ansan No. 1 plant at the Banweol Industrial Complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi-do, on May 16.

The company plans to secure a production capacity of 12,000 tons by the first half of next year through additional investments. Lotte Fine Chemical’s cellulose sales are evaluated to have grown at an annual average growth rate of 20 percent in the recent three years.

Only four companies in the world own technologies related to cellulose relatives for edible and medical uses. They are Lotte Fine Chemical, DuPont and Ashland of the United States, and Shin-Etsu Chemical of Japan.
Lotte Fine Chemical plans to raise the portion of green materials in its business portfolio.

The company aims to raise sales from 1.2 trillion won last year to 5 trillion won in 2030. Lotte Fine Chemical invested 290 billion won in a private equity fund for stakes in Solus Advanced Materials, a maker of copper foil and battery foil last year.

The company is ramping up the development of “Eurox,” a brand of diesel exhaust fluid, an eco-friendly catalyst for eliminating nitrogen oxide, harmful to human body.

Lotte Aluminium’s Ansan No. 1 plant completed a process of expanding production facilities of secondary battery foils last September. Battery copper foil is a core material of the electric car battery.

High-end, compact, high-efficiency battery copper foil can help increase the mileage of electric cars. Lotte Aluminium’s batter copper foil production capacity has risen to 11,000 tons per annum.

Lotte Aluminium is building a battery copper foil plant in Hungary with an investment of 110 billion won. If the plant is dedicated in upcoming November, Lotte Alumnium’s capacity will swell to 29,000 tons annually.