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USA: Engineering LG Chem to Invest 50 Million Dollars for Building New ABS Compound Facility

Editor: Ahlam Rais

With an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons, the new ABS compound facility will be developed at LG Chem’s Ohio Tech Center site in the USA and is expected to meet the growing demand for high value-add ABS in the region. The company also intends to invest 100 million dollars for establishing its American and European Tech Center by 2023.

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LG Chem’s ABS Compound Plant will commence mass-production by the end of 2023.
LG Chem’s ABS Compound Plant will commence mass-production by the end of 2023.
(Source: ©saravut - stock.adobe.com)

Seoul, South Korea – LG Chem is expanding its organization for closer customer support. This is to strengthen the Company’s global market position and lay the foundations required to secure additional production bases in the future.

The firm recently announced that it will construct a new ABS compound plant in the United States. In addition, the Company will also invest around 100 million dollars to expand the tech center, a customer-tailored technical support facility, to the United States and Europe.

LG Chem will invest around 50 million dollars to construct an ABS compound plant in the site of the Ohio Tech Center in the United States with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons by 2023.

The plant will locally produce customized ABS products that reflect customer needs and this is expected to generate significant synergies with the American Tech Center in terms of strengthening customer responsiveness. The North American market, which accounts for 10 % of global demand for ABS, has a low self-sufficiency rate in the region and a high preference for local companies and products.

In particular, the demand for high value-add ABS with excellent heat resistance and weather resistance is continuously increasing due to the development of the automotive, construction and decoration materials industries. LG Chem also plans to consider constructing an ABS polymerization plant to respond to North American customers as the petrochemical business areas expand in the future.The introduction of the ABS compound plant and the American Tech Center is expected to strengthen intimacy with the customer and serve as a stepping stone for the expansion of the North American business.

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Kug Lae Noh, President of the Petrochemicals Company, stated “Tech centers will strengthen customer responsiveness through customized technical support optimized to the local market and play a key role in making LG Chem’s strategic product lead the global markets. Starting from the customer's pain point, we will provide differentiated insights to customers, and seek various ways to expand the global business based on this.”

The ‘American Tech Center’ will be built in Ohio, US, and the ‘European Tech Center’ will be built in Frankfurt, Germany. Completion of construction and start of full-scale operation are scheduled to take place in 2023 for both centers.

The American and European Tech Centers will each have various pilot facilities for customer-tailored technical support. The US and Europe are the main markets that account for more than 20 % of global demand for LG Chem’s strategic products.

LG Chem plans to strengthen the Company’s global market position by establishing a customer response base that can provide rapid technical solutions in the region through the establishment of the tech center.

When the construction of the American and European Tech Centers are complete, LG Chem will have established a ‘global quadrilateral’ customer support system centered in Osan, Korea, extending to China, the United States, and Europe. The Company is currently constructing a tech center in Huadong, China. (Planning to begin operations in 2022)

The American and European Tech Centers will focus on improving the technology of customers centered on automotive materials and packaging films, and will also contribute to the expansion of eco-friendly materials and related products such as PCR (Post-Consumer Recycle) technology.

In addition, the tech centers will also be used as the local base for recruiting overseas R&D talents in the future. The Huanan/Huadong Tech Centers in China will contribute to improving the technology of Chinese customers, revitalizing the local economy, hiring outstanding talent, and contributing to the mutual benefit effect in the region.

Osan Tech Center will oversee domestic and global customer-focused technical support and focus on developing future processing technology.

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