LG Chem invests in new cracking unit

Recently, LG Chem announced that the company’s new mixed-feed steam cracking furnace in Lishui has begun filling naphtha raw materials. The designed capacity of the cracking unit is 800,000 tons/year of ethylene and 400,000 tons/year of propylene, which will expand LG Chem’s total ethylene capacity by 32.9% to 3.23 million tons/year. According to data from Axioms, of the two existing crackers of LG Chem, the Dashan plant has an ethylene production capacity of 1.27 million tons per year, while the other Lishui cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1.16 million tons per year

Market participants said that the commissioning of crackers in South Korea offset the loss of demand caused by a large number of maintenance plans in Northeast Asia. The average gross profit of naphtha in Asia so far in June is USD 97.10/ton, which is higher than USD 90.85/ton last month.