SK Global Chemical has signed a contract to acquire the functional polyolefin business of Arkema, a France-based global manufacturer of specialty chemicals and advanced materials.The company hopes that the acquisition will catapult it into the global high-value added packaging materials market.The c
LG Electronics Inc. has become more aggressive in advancing into new businesses after Koo Kwang-mo took office as chairman of LG Group last year. As the company has made bold investments in future growth engines, the number of its subsidiaries has greatly increased for the first time in four years.
Korea’s petrochemical exports to China are plummeting amid China’s economic slowdown and rising self-sufficiency in petrochemical products.Exports of petrochemicals, one of Korea's main export items, fell 5.4 percent year on year in January. In December of last year, exports dropped 6.3 percent.
LG Electronics announced on October 1 that the company has decided to develop self-driving modules for mobile robots in cooperation with Robotis, a Korean service robot solution company. A self-driving module is the core drive module used in mobile robots.LG Electronics will develop software by appl
South Korea’s leading chemical and secondary battery maker LG Chem Ltd. is expanding its business areas to automotive components and materials by acquiring companies. LG Group has been somewhat passive in M&As, but it is now pursuing a speedy and aggressive business strategy under its new chairman K
LG Electronics, which is putting a lot of efforts into the robot business, has developed industrial wearable robots. That will be the eighth robot product for LG Electronics. The company is planning to create new business opportunities in the field of robotics by applying big data-powered artificial
LG Electronics, which focuses on the robot business as one of its future growth engines, has started investing in foreign robot companies.The company announced on June 22 that it has recently invested US$ 3 million in BossaNova Robotics, a US robot development company. It was the first time the comp
LG Electronics established a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley last month. LG Technology Ventures is virtually the first venture capital firm ever set up by the LG Group. The establishment of the company is seen as reflecting the group’s efforts to discover future growth engines under a new cha
It has been found that the number of import restrictions imposed on South Korean products by foreign governments totaled 198 as of March 29 this year. The information has been disclosed to the public since January 2015 and the number had been 174 at that time.The number rapidly rose especially in 20
Last month, the Indian government imposed anti-dumping duties on toluene diisocyanate (TDI) South Korean companies produced and exported to India. The duties are US$220, US$310 and US$440 per ton for Hanwha Chemical, BASF Korea and OCI, respectively. The annual TDI production capacity of BASF Korea
After Lotte Group suffered a huge loss due to China’s economic retaliation against South Korea over the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system, Chairman Shin Dong-bin accelerates his plan to tap deeper into Indonesia as a “post China” country.Lotte Group sa
SK Global Chemical announced on September 3 that it completed the acquisition of Dow Chemical Company’s ethylene acrylic acid (EAA) copolymers and ionomers business on September 1.As a result of the acquisition, Dow Chemical Company’s production facilities located in Freeport, Texas and Tarragona, S
SK Innovation, South Korea’s leading oil refiner, is seeking to turn into a total energy chemical company with “Deep Change 2.0” strategy this year. The Deep Change strategy has been emphasized by Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, to bring radical reform.During a press conference at the SK headqua
It has been found that the four largest petrochemical companies in South Korea are planning to make an investment of approximately 10 trillion won (US$9 billion) in total this year, up more than 20% from a year ago.Specifically, LG Chem’s capital expenditure for this year is estimated at 2.7 trillio
As the European Union (EU) has approved the proposed merger of Dow Chemical and Du Pont, SK Group gave a sigh of relief. Now, the company’s last obstacle to its acquisition of Dow Chemical’s ethylene acrylic acid (EAA) business unit has been eliminated.EU regulators gave approval to proposed Dow Che
SK Group's "China Insider" strategy is reeling due to continuing project abortions. SK, having shown close ties with China, became helpless in the awake of diplomatic frictions between South Korea and China over Korea’s plan to deploy the THAAD System on the Korean peninsula. SK Group affiliates are
SK Innovation is acquiring the ethylene acrylic acid (EAA) business run by the Dow Chemical Co., expanding its chemical business areas. With the acquisition, SK will operate a chemical business in the United States for the first time.SK Innovation announced on Feb. 2 that it signed a contract to buy
It has been found that South Korean oil and petrochemical companies are adjusting upward their quarterly sales and profit estimates for the fourth quarter of this year one after another.This is because international oil prices are on the rise, based on crude oil exporting countries’ agreement on pro
LG Chem, chemical and battery making unit under LG Group, is seeking to lock up first place in the global acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) market. As a high value added composite material, ABS is widely used in information technology (IT) and vehicle products due to its excellent heat resistanc
LG Chem plans to boost the sales of high-value products in their basic materials business from the current 3 trillion won (US$2.69 billion) to 7 trillion won (US$6.28 billion) by 2020. The move has come amid expectations the nation's petrochemical industry will face fiercer competition with China, s