Seeking for Synergy

(From left) Kolon Plastics CEO Jang Hee-gu, North Gyeongsang Province Governor Chung Byung-yoon, Kolon President Ahn Byung-duk, Raimar Jahn, BASF president of performance material division, Lee Sang-jin, director general for trade cooperation in the Minis
(From left) Kolon Plastics CEO Jang Hee-gu, North Gyeongsang Province Governor Chung Byung-yoon, Kolon President Ahn Byung-duk, Raimar Jahn, BASF president of performance material division, Lee Sang-jin, director general for trade cooperation in the Minis

 

Kolon Plastics is joining hands with BASF, the world's leading chemical company, to target the market of engineering plastic, which is catching on as car lightweight materials. Combining BASF’s innovative technology and Kolon Plastics’ manufacturing technology, the two companies will build a polyoxymethylene (POM) production plant.

Kolon BASF innoPOM Inc., a joint venture established by Kolon Plastics and BASF, had a groundbreaking ceremony for the POM production plant in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, on Apr. 27. The new plant will start producing 70,000 tons of POM annually from the second half of 2018. It will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 tons, the world’s largest for a single site with existing production facilities.

Currently, POM is widely used in various industries, such as automobile, electrical and electronic and industrial machinery and tools. About 42 percent of global demands are used to produce major automotive components, including fuel pump, door locking device and seat belt. Since the POM production process is complicated, like high pressure and high temperature, and it requires the high-level technical skills, only a small number of companies in advanced countries, including the U.S.-based Celanese and DuPont, Germany’s BASF and Japan’s Mitsubishi, own technologies.

The reason why BASF, which has global leading automakers as its clients, chose Kolon Plastics as its joint venture partner is that the company recognizes Kolon Plastics’ technology which simplifies the manufacturing process while improving the efficiency.

In fact, Kolon Plastics publicly announced on the same day that it has signed a US$10 million (11.5 billion won) agreement to provide the POM manufacturing process technology to Kolon BASF innoPOM. Kolon Plastics gets abreast of in about 20 years after it first started the POM commercial production in 1998.

Kolon Plastics CEO Jang Hee-gu said, “In order to achieve the two rivals’ common goal of “Best Productivity and Quality,” Kolon BASF innoPOM will build the production plant with the world’s best competitiveness in the POM sector by focusing the two companies’ expertise.”

To this end, Kolon Plastics will be in charge of production and operation, while BASF will sell most products manufactured by the joint venture.

 

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