KOREA (SOUTH): Lotte Chemical to suspend additional production lines at Ulsan plant

Lotte Chemical announced on 21 April 2020 that it will stop operating two metaxylene (MeX) production lines and one paraxylene (PX) production line at its Ulsan plant.

Lotte Chemical recently expanded its MeX production lines to increase purified isophthalic acid (PIA) production, but was hit hard by the novel coronavirus crisis. As downstream industries such as construction and automobiles contracted, demand for PIA fell sharply, triggering a sharp drop in MeX production.

Recently, Lotte Chemical has been continuously lowering its plant utilization rate in the wake of the spread of COVID-19. In March, the PTA production process at the Ulsan plant was stopped and the PX plant utilization rate was revised down.

Lotte Chemical has three MeX lines, two PX lines, two PIA lines, five PET lines, and three PTA lines at the Ulsan plant. This means that the company has lowered the utilization rates of most of the processes, including the two MeX lines and one PX line that are to be suspended.

With a global economic downturn accelerating with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Korean petrochemical companies have been adjusting their overall operations. SK Global Chemical has decided to stop its naphtha cracking center (NCC) at the SK Ulsan Complex beginning December 2020 and its ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber production process within the second quarter.

Source: “BusinessKorea”, Seoul; 23 Apr 2020
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)