Lotte Chemical is seizing on the exploration of future new industries, such as hydrogen battery materials, this year.
The company wants to make this year one which will not only ramp up the competitiveness of the petrochemical business, its mainstay business, but also actualize the expansion of future new industries and value-added specialty products to make a leap forward.
Lotte Chemical announced its provisional business performance results for the year 2021, and business tasks for this year.
Lotte Chemical saw sales surge 45.7 percent year-on-year to 17,805.2 billion won and operating profit jump to 1,535,8 billion won, a 330.3 percent year-on-year increase.
The surge in operating profit in 2021 was owed to the base effect of an explosion at Lotte Chemical’s Daesan petrochemical complex in 2020, which resulted in plunging 2020 operating profit.
A Lotte Chemical official said the rising use of packing materials and medical and disinfection products, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and upstream industry demand contributed to the solid operating profit for 2021.
Looking at the business performance for Q4, the company saw sales surge 50.4 percent year-on-year to 4,842.9 billion won, but operating profit plunged 86.2 percent to 29.7 billion won.
It was attributable to the rising burden of raw material prices for petrochemical products, caused by crude oil price hikes, and opportunity loss costs, related to the regular maintenance of its Ulsan plant, and falling demand in the year-end off-season.
This year, Lotte Chemical plans to seize on the expansion of the competitiveness of the petrochemical business, its mainstay business, and actualize the exploration of future businesses such as hydrogen battery materials.
To this end, the company decided to build new facilities for electrolyte organic solvent and carbon capture and liquefication by investing 602 billion won into the Daesan Petrochemical Complex.
The nation fully depends on electrolyte organic solvent imports. The latest investment will allow to Lotte Chemical to localize the material.
In particular, Lotte Chemical is considering the establishment of a battery raw material company in the United States to seize on the battery raw material business.
In a conference call on the business performance for the year, the company said the Americas is a region in which Lotte Chemical has entered and is one of the world’s biggest EV battery materials demand markets.
The company has studied its entry into the EV battery materials demand market and contacted related organizations of late.
A view of PHA, a bio-degradable plastic material, developed by Lotte Chemical. (Photos: Lotte Chemical)
Lotte Chemical to Secure Technology to Mass Produce Bio-Degradable Plastic PHA
Lotte Chemical plans to develop a technology to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates, known collectively as PHA, a bio-degradable plastic material, in cooperation with Prof. Yoon Sung-ho of Joongang University.
PHA is one of bio-degradable plastic material, used for making packing, medical products and cosmetics containers. PHA emits less carbon in the course of production, and it is a big-ticket, eco-friendly, value-added raw material.
In particular, PHA does not cause harm to humans, and is characterized by excellent bio-degradability in usually natural and maritime conditions, compared to other big-degradable plastic materials.
PHA is predicted to maintain a high growth rate, as concern on technologies to solve plastic waste and maritime pollution issues has been on the rise.
Lotte Chemical plans to secure a technology to produce PHA based on the petrochemical foundation by 2023 through joint sites using a PHA catalyst technology, developed by Prof. Yoon of Chung-Ang University and implement a project to produce products.
The PHA catalyst technology project was commissioned by the Ministry of Science, ICT and ICT (MSIT), National Research Foundation of Korea, Sogang University and C1 Gas Refinery R&D Center.
