South Korea’s KP Chemical to cut PET export volume from June

04 May 2012 08:36  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--South Korea’s KP Chemical is likely to cut its export volume of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle-grade chips by 4,000-5,000 tonnes on a monthly basis, starting from June, a company source said on Friday.

This is to enable to the company - South Korea’s largest PET bottle chip producer - to supply to the domestic market, the source added.

“The current export volume for KP Chemical on a monthly basis is around 30,000 tonnes and KP will supply the domestic market from the Ulsan plant,” added the source.

“[KP Chemical] will supply around 60% of domestic demand as Honam Petrochemical is converting their PET unit located in Yeosu to produce bio-PET,” said the source.

The source did not say how much of South Korea’s domestic demand KP Chemical was supplying before the planned increase.

Late last week, Honam Petrochemical and KP Chemical signed a distribution agreement with Toyota Tsusho, the sole trading arm of Japan’s Toyota Group, to supply bio-PET from its 72,000 tonne/year Yeosu plant, the source said.

“Bio-PET is [of] a highly specialised grade and [is] more costly with bio-monoethylene glycol as a raw material,” he added.

Honam Petrochemical has a 72,000 tonne/year capacity of PET bottle-grade chips and it is currently only supplying to the local market, according to the source.

Both KP Chemical and Honam Petrochemical are affiliates of the South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group.

By: Yu Guo
+65 6780 4359

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