Growth Strategy
SK Innovation Vice Chairman Chung Chul-khil visited the Shanghai office of the company's affiliate SK Global Chemical, and said the company will accelerate the chemical business growth strategy in China. Moreover, he asked the management to actively seek mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of competitive chemical firms and strategic partnerships in China in order to promote the higher value-added chemical business in earnest.
Chung chose China as the first place to visit for New Year’s and he is visiting Shanghai, the business base of SK Global Chemical in China, from February 3.
During his visit, Chung said, "People are highly concerned about China's economic recession and slow growth. But still it is the world's biggest petrochemical market with many opportunities available. We should accelerate the global growth strategy by establishing second and third partnerships just like with the Wuhan Naphtha Cracking Center, a joint venture made possible by SK Innovation's partnership with China's Sinopec in 2014.”
The cracking center, which began commercial operation in January 2014, produces nearly 2.5 million tons of ethylene and other petrochemical products annually. The plant reported 147.6 billion won (US$123.15 million) in operating profit in 2014, its first year of operation, and 465 billion won (US$387.98 million) last year. It is also considered a model case of SK’s global partnerships. As of the first half of last year, the plant ranked seventh and second in terms of pre-tax profit and pre-tax profit rate, respectively, among ethylene companies of Sinopec.
Chung will visit the Wuhan Naphtha Cracking Center on the 5th to encourage its employees. Earlier, he visited the JV Solvent Plant in Shanghai and the Ningbo ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) plant, which are in operation through the partnerships with Chinese companies.