South Korea's Kumho Petrochemical and its subsidiaries plan to spend a combined Won 880 billion ($837 million) by 2014 to build new plants in Yeosu, on the country's southern coast, the company said Wednesday.
Kumho Petrochemical will build a solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene-rubber plant with a capacity of 60,000 mt/year by 2014 and its subsidiary Kumho Polychem plans to build an ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber plant with a capacity of 60,000 mt/year.
Kumho P&B Chemicals will build a bisphenol-A plant with a capacity of 150,000 mt/year, while Kumho Mitsui Chemicals plans to build a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plant with a capacity of 50,000 mt/year.
The company did not give the investment plan for each plant.
Kumho Petrochemical has signed a deal with Yeosu city mayor for the project. Kumho said the deal reflects its efforts to meet surging demand for materials which are used in automobiles and consumer electronics.
Earlier this month, Kumho Petrochemical posted its second-quarter net profit, which more than tripled to Won 178.3 billion from a year earlier, on strong demand for synthetic rubber and other products.
The petrochemical producer aims to boost its annual sales to Won 20 trillion by 2020 to make itself a "global leading chemical group."
