MOSCOW (MRC) -- Lotte Chemical Co., a South Korean petrochemical major, said it will invest 4.4 trillion won (USD3.8 billion) in the hydrogen business by 2030 to cut its carbon emissions and foster the new growth driver, according to Kemicalinfo.
Under its hydrogen growth roadmap, Green Promise 2030, Lotte Chemical said through the investment it aims to generate annual sales of 3 trillion won (USD2.6 billion) with an operating profit margin of over 10% in its hydrogen-related business alone by the 2030 pledge date.
Lotte Chemical is the latest company to pinpoint hydrogen as a future growth engine. In terms of hydrogen production, companies in these fields have an advantage because hydrogen is a natural byproduct in their factories.
The company said it will establish blue hydrogen facilities with an annual production capacity of 160,000 tons by 2025. It also plans to generate green hydrogen at overseas facilities and bring it to Korea for industrial use, with a target of 440,000 tons a year of green hydrogen by 2030.
Overall, Lotte aims to launch facilities with an annual hydrogen production capacity of 600,000 tons by 2030.
As MRC informed before, Lotte Chemical shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker in Daesan for an annual maintenance on 15 May, 2021. This cracker with the capacity of 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 550,000 mt/year of propylene resumed production on 23 June, 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers in South Korea. One cracker is located in Daesan county in Seosan which can produce 1.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene with the other 1.2 million tonnes per year cracker in the southwestern city of Yeosu.
MRC