South Korea's Hanwha Total to expand PE capacities by 50%

Market sources reported that Hanwha Total Petrochemicals Co Ltd (HTPCL), a 50-50 joint venture of Seoul’s Hanwha Group and Paris’ Total SA, will be investing more than $300 million for the expansion of its PE capacity at Daesan refining and petrochemical integrated complex. The expansion project is expected to raise its PE capacity by more than 50% to 1.1 million tons/year by end of 2019.

Based in Chungnam, South Korea, the project complements the previous plan of the expansion of complex’s steam cracker, which located at the same area, costs $450 million. Upon completion, the company’s ethylene production capacity will be increased by 30% to 1.4 million tons/year, which as well increase the feedstock flexibility of the complex to process propane supplies as a result of increasing shale gas production of United States.