Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy and South Korea's SK Global Chemical have agreed to build a 1 million mt/year paraxylene plant in Ulsan after forming a 50:50 joint venture company, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.
The new plant is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2014. The total investment is estimated at Yen 80 billion ($1.0 billion). The PX plant will be built at SK's 840,000 b/d refinery in Ulsan.
SK Global Chemical is a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea's refiner SK Innovation.
The decision is in line with an agreement reached in January 2007 on their strategic alliance. The move is also to meet rising PX demand for polyester production.
In addition, the move enables the companies to produce high value-added petrochemical products.
JX has a total PX production capacity of 2.62 million mt/year, while SK Global Chemical has a PX capacity of 758,000 mt/year.
At the same time, JX Energy and SK Innovation have also agreed to build a 1.35 million kl/year lubricants plant, also in Ulsan, spending Yen 28 billion.
According to the agreement, JX will take a 28% stake in SK Lubricants, a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Innovation. The new plant is scheduled to start commercial operations around July 2012.
