Eyeing Global Top 5

LG Chem ranked 10th in 2017 Global Top 50 list, two notches up from the previous year.
LG Chem ranked 10th in 2017 Global Top 50 list, two notches up from the previous year.

LG Chem was selected as a top 10 global chemical company for the first time as a domestic company.

LG Chem ranked 10th in the 2017 Global Top 50 announced by C& EN, a chemical magazine published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), which was two notches up from the previous year.

The Global Top 50 is based on the results of the ACS’s comprehensive analysis of recent sales, operating profit and growth rates of chemical companies around the world. LG Chem placed 4th among Asian companies after China’s Sinopec (3rd), Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics (6th), and Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical (9th). Multiple Korean chemical companies made the top 50. Lotte Chemical ranked 22nd, rising by two notches from last year, and SK Innovation placed 38th, up by six notches from a year before.

C&EN explained that LG Chem was expanding its research and development (R&D) human resources to 6,300 by 2020 as its battery business was growing and in particular, making massive investment while securing the supply of cathode materials for EV batteries by establishing a joint venture with China Huayu Cobalt.

As LG Chem made the global top 10 for the first time, the company took a step closer to its goal of becoming a Global Top 5 company in 2025. "We will ramp up sales to 36.4 trillion won by 2020 by posting an annual average growth rate of more than 15%," said Park Jin-soo, vice chairman of LG Chem.

BASF kept its position as the world's top petrochemical company by claiming first place for 12 years running. Dowdupont of the United States which began as a joint venture company last year came in second, followed by China's Sinopec, Saudi Arabia's SABIC and the UK's Ineos.

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