After two and a half years of construction, Hanwha Total Petrochemical (Daesan / South Korea; www.hanwha-total.com) has started up the additional ethylene capacity at its integrated complex in Daesan. Around USD 450m was invested to raise capacity by 30% to 1.4m t/y of C2 – see Plasteurope.com of 19.04.2017.

Commissioning of an expanded polyethylene line is to follow by the end of 2019, the company says. More than USD 300m will be put into extending PE production by 50% to 1.1m t/y. A third phase of the project costing nearly USD 500m will also see PP capacity raised by almost 60% to 1.1m t/y by 2021.

The projects take advantage of cheaper propane feedstock coming from US shale deposits. Total notes that the JV’s expanded production volumes can help meet rapidly rising demand in Asia.

Hanwha Total, formerly Samsung Total, is a 50:50 JV between Hanwha (Seoul / South Korea; www.hanwha.com) and Total (Paris / France; www.total.com). According to Plasteurope.com’s Polyglobe database (www.polyglobe.net), extensive aromatics activities are downstream of its main naphtha cracker, in addition to 395,000 t/y of LDPE/EVA, 295,000 t/y of HDPE and LLDPE as well as 700,000 t/y of PP, among others.