Ulsan PP, the new 50:50 joint venture of South Korean companies PolyMirae (Seoul; www.polymirae.co.kr) and SK Advanced (Ulsan; www.sk-advanced.com), has broken ground on a project to produce 400,000 t/y of PP in the southeastern port city of Ulsan – see Plasteurope.com of 05.07.2018. The facility, expected to be one of the largest of its kind in Asia, is planned to go onstream in the first half of 2021, using the “Spheripol” process of LyondellBasell (LYB, Houston, Texas / USA; www.lyondellbasell.com). Output is earmarked for applications in automotive and packaging in Asia.

Along the production path, the companies will be able to leverage a vertically integrated supply chain. The propane output of SK Gas will be converted by SK Advanced – a three-way partnership of SK Gas, Saudi Arabia’s Advanced Petrochemical and Kuwait’s PIC – to propylene and in the end stage to polypropylene. With this approach, the companies say they will ensure a stable supply of raw materials and operational efficiency while enhancing responsiveness to market changes. PolyMirae will market all the PP produced at Ulsan to customers in South Korea through the export channels of LyondellBasell and Daelim.