Hanwha Total Petrochemical, a joint venture between Total and Hanwha, has invested nearly $500 million in setting up a new polypropylene plant and thereby further expand its Daesan integrated refining and petrochemical complex in South Korea. With this investment, Daesan will be able to capture margins across the propylene-polypropylene value chain.

The planned investment will increase the polypropylene capacity by close to 60 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes per year by the end of 2020. The ethylene capacity will simultaneously increase by 10 per cent to 1.5 million tonnes. The additional production of high-value-added polymers will allow the complex to meet local demand and supply the fast-growing Asian market.

This project complements the ongoing investments totaling $750 million to increase the complex’s ethylene production capacity by 30 per cent to 1.4 million tonnes per year by mid-2019 and to expand polyethylene production capacity by 50 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes by end 2019, according to a media release by Hanwha Total. All these investments are designed to take advantage of competitively priced propane feedstock, which is abundantly available due to the shale gas revolution in the US.

“This new investment in Daesan is fully in line with our strategy of growth in petrochemicals to meet global demand, focusing investments on our world-class facilities and leveraging competitively priced feedstock. This polypropylene project complements our offering of high-value-added polymers to the fast-growing Asian market,” said Bernard Pinatel, president, refining & chemicals at Total. (PC)