Total Petrochemicals Friday announced plans to consolidate its petrochemicals holdings in Asia, with a $1.8 billion expansion and upgrading project for the Daesan complex in South Korea, which it co-owns with Samsung in a 50:50 joint venture.
The plan includes the construction of a second aromatics unit and an ethylene-vinyl-acetate co-polymer plant, Total said in a statement.
The aromatics unit is expected to have a production capacity of 1 million mt/year of paraxylene and 420,000 mt/year of benzene, according to the statement.
Construction of the aromatics unit was expected to be completed by September 2014.
The complete upgrade of the aromatics complex will mean a total paraxylene production at the site of 1.76 million mt/year.
The new ethylene-vinyl acetate unit is expected to produce 240,00 mt/year.
"This investment project in partnership with Samsung is aligned with Total's strategy of expanding in growth markets. It gives us the strong base we need to maintain our position as a leading supplier of value-added products to meet demand in Asia, especially China," said Patrick Pouyanne, president of Total's refining-chemicals business.
"We are pursuing our strategy of focusing our spending on our most efficient integrated platforms, such as the Daesan complex," Pouyanne said.
A source at Samsung Petrochemicals said the expansion follows similar aromatics tieups in Asia such as JX-SK and Hyundai-Cosmo.
Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy and South Korea's SK Global Chemical will build a 1 million mt/year paraxylene plant in Ulsan, which is scheduled to start commercial operations in 2014. And South Korea's HC Petrochem is building a new No.2 benzene, toluene, xylene complex at Daesan, south Chungcheong province, which is expected to be completed in June 2013.
The HC Petrochem plant will be able to deliver up 800,000 mt/year of paraxylene, 115,000 mt/year of benzene and an unspecified amount of byproducts. HC Petrochem is a 50:50 joint venture between Hyundai Oilbank and Cosmo Oil.
