●  SK chemicals decides to invest in a large-scale PPS facility

SK chemicals is investing in a large-scale facility for the production of super engineering plastic.

SK chemicals (CEO Chang-geun Kim) officially announced on December 20, it would invest in a facility worth KRW 230 billion for the production of Poly Phenylene Sulfide (PPS).

PPS is a kind of super engineering plastic that is resistant to high heat and chemicals and its use is being expanded to the replacement of metals. The global super engineering plastic market is about 280,000 tons large and of this, PPS amounts to 94,000 tons annually as of compound (2012).

SK chemicals plans to build a new production facility inside the chemical factory in Ulsan and complete the first commercial facility during the latter half of 2015 to consolidate production capacity of 12,000 tons (as of base resin: pure PPS production except for glass fiber or other materials). Also, SK chemicals will consider the market growth rate after 2015 to additionally construct facilities according to need. If additionally constructing facilities, SK chemicals is expected to reach production capacity of 20,000 tons.

SK chemicals will start commercializing the compound in 2015 and expects sales of KRW 140 billion by 2017. Through cooperation with Korean and global companies, it plans to increase sales to KRW 340 billion by 2024.

The global market of PPS is forecast to grow annually by over 7% on average until 2020. In particular, as the automobile market is actively working to develop and apply more PPS in hybrid automobiles and e-cars for the production of lighter automobiles, demand for compounds is forecast to increase from 50,000 tons in 2011 to 100,000 tons in 2019 in the automobile business alone.

Also, if reducing the automobile weight by 100 kg, the mileage apparently improves by 2-3%. The application of lighter materials to save resources is highly meaningful.

▶ Consolidation of differentiation with eco-friendly facilities contains no “chlorine,” the cause of electronic machine errors
SK chemicals is particularly focusing its investment in eco-friendly production facilities to consolidate solid competitiveness against other companies’ products.

SK chemicals’ PPS is different from the production process built by existing businesses and does not require poisonous solvents that it has the advantage of not necessitating the processing of by-products.

The PPS thus produced does not contain any chlorine unlike existing materials, which is a differentiating point. Chlorine is added in PVC, epoxy, and chemical materials and is used as a bleacher and sterilizer. Because of dispute over its harmful nature, movements to use alternative materials are actively increasing in developed countries, such as the United States and Europe.

In particular, if electro-mechanics and electronic parts contain chlorine, it can act as a major cause of errors of sensitive electronic parts that related businesses hold strict regulations on the containment of chlorine in products.

As such, should PPS without chlorine be commercialized, SK chemicals is forecast to be able to consolidate differentiation in the eletromechanics and electronic parts market.

SK chemicals plans to actively attack the PPS market based on such eco-friendliness. To this, President Moon-suk Lee of Green Chemical Biz of SK chemicals said, "An eco-friendly wind is blowing in the commercial materials market as well because of the major issues of energy saving and green growth to tackle." He continued, "Based on differentiated eco-friendliness and functions, we will expand our share in the global PPS market to 20% by 2019.”