Seoul�Lotte Chemical and Hanwha General Chemical have entered into an agreement, in which Hanwha will supply 450,000 t/y of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) to Lotte, effective next month.
In order to meet its supply obligation, Hanwha will restart PTA production at its No. 2 plant in Ulsan, S. Korea, which has been idle. Hanwha owns Korea’s “largest” PTA facility with a capacity of 2-million t/y, Lotte noted.
Lotte will transform its 600,000-t/y PTA facility in Ulsan to produce purified isophthalic acid (PIA), beginning this July. It has 520,000 t/y of PIA production capacity.
“This agreement is a case to expand profitability and business competitiveness through the voluntary cooperation of the two companies, who are competitors in the petrochemical industry, and it is meaningful in that they came together for the bigger goal of developing the domestic chemical industry,” said Lotte.