MOSCOW (MRC) -- Hyosung Corporation, a South Korean maker of textiles and heavy machinery, will spend 280 billion won (USD266 million) to build a propylene plant by May 2015, reported Yonhap News Agency.
The plan was launched on expectations that the recent brisk development of shale gas may send the prices of propane, a raw material for propylene, down and help Hyosung profit more from the propylene production, it said.
Hyosung plans to build the plant in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Once completed, the company's propylene production capacity will more than double to 500,000 tons from the current 200,000 tons.
As MRC wrote previously, in November, Hyosung Group developed high-performance thermoplastic polymers called polyketones, which will be used in various types of value-added industrial products. The firm claimed the company is the first in the world to commercialize the material, saying it is one of the greatest achievements in the materials industry, tantamount to the development of nylon by American chemical giant DuPont more than seven decades ago. Unlike many other engineering plastics, polyketones are relatively easy to synthesize and could be derived from inexpensive monomers.
Propylene is a raw material used for making auto parts, textiles and home appliances.
Hyosung Corporation is a Korean industrial conglomerate, founded in 1957. It operates in various fields, including the chemical industry, industrial machinery, IT, trade, and construction.
MRC