MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Titan, a local petrochemical unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, plans to start construction of a USD4 bln naphtha cracker plant in Indonesia next year, as per Plastemart with reference to jakartaglobe.com.
The project, which has been delayed for three years due to land acquisition problems, will help Indonesia reduce expensive chemical imports, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto said.
The company plans to complete the front-end engineering design this year and start construction next year. The plant will have a capacity to produce 1 million tons of ethylene and 600,000 tons of propylene annually.
The facility will be located close to another that is owned by Chandra Asri Petrochemical - controlled by Indonesian tycoon Prajogo Pangestu's Barito Pacific and SCG Chemicals - which is currently being expanded to double its annual production capacity to 2 million tons of ethylene.
As MRC wrote previously, sround 40% of the total investment needed for the new plant would be taken from the company’s internal cash, while the rest would be from bank loans.
The Lotte Group currently has a presence in Indonesia via its subsidiary, Honam Petrochemicals, which acquired Malaysia’s polyolefin major Titan Chemicals in July 2010. Included in the acquisition was Titan’s Indonesian subsidiary - PT Titan Petrokimia Nusantara (TPN), which has a polyethylene (PE) production capacity of 450,000 tonnes/year.
MRC