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LONDON (ICIS)--Lotte Chemical UK’s plans to expand its
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) operations at Wilton in northeast England to
350,000 tonnes/year has received board approval, a company source confirmed on
Friday.
"The expansion and further integration in C8 enables us to be
competitive in the wider European market as we go forward," said Lotte Chemical
UK business director Mark Kenrick.
Work to add a new 200,000 tonne/year plant
alongside the existing 150,000 tonne/year facility is due for completion by the
third or fourth quarter of 2013, the company said in an earlier press release.
No financial details were disclosed.
In the press release SY Huh,
president of Lotte's parent company KP, said the plan demonstrated KP’s ambition
to become "an Asia Top 10 Global Group by 2018".
Lotte Chemical UK has been
given a conditional regional growth fund (RGF) offer by the UK government, which
is expected to be fully confirmed by the end of 2011.
According to urban
regeneration company Tees Valley Unlimited, Lotte Chemical UK has been given
approval for ?6.7m (?7.7m, $10.3m) of RGF support towards the construction of a
new PET plant.
Lotte Chemical UK manufactures and sells polyester
intermediate PTA and PET resin for use in the packaging
industry.
Plans to expand at Lotte Chemical UK were first indicated
as a possibility to ICIS in March. This announcement and the expansion plans of
other PET and upstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA)producers have prompted
concern among industry players that the market will be oversupplied.
"The
market won’t be able to absorb it all," one supplier said, echoing comments from
others.
mrcplast.com
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