- Established a joint venture with Shuye of China, and Constructed a 100,000-ton waste plastic recycling plant in Shantou City
- This is to satisfy the rapidly increasing demand for recycled plastic materials... The goal is to become a global leader in green materials by 2030
SK chemicals is set to build global infrastructure in China and other countries to meet the rapidly increasing demand for recycled plastic waste around the world.
SK chemicals (CEO Jeon Kwang-hyun) held an MOU signing ceremony on the 25th to establish a joint venture with Shuye, a Chinese green material company, in Shantou, China, and announced that it has decided to build a production plant for 100,000-ton chemical recycled raw materials and 200,000-ton chemical recycling (CR) copolyester and PET.
The signing ceremony was attended by Park No-hyuk, general manager of SK chemicals (Shanghai) and Im Soo-gwang, the division president of Shuye. Shuye is a company that acquired a 10% stake in SK chemicals by investing KRW 23 billion last year and secured the right to purchase (off-take) 20,000 tons of chemically recycled plastic raw materials.
Through this agreement, the joint venture of the two companies will build a depolymerization plant with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of recycled BHET (r-BHET), and using this as a raw material, it plans to build a production plant of 200,000 tons of chemically recycled PET and copolyester, and supply it to the global market.
The plant site required for this construction will be provided by Shuye. The plant site is adjacent to the existing depolymerization plant 1, so the plan is to maximize efficiency in terms of infrastructure utilization, investment cost reduction, management and operation. The two companies plan to complete the signing of the agreement within this year and start building the plant early next year to start commercial production as early as the end of 2024. SK chemicals will secure management rights by holding more than 51% of the new corporation.
Starting with the establishment of a joint venture in China, SK chemicals plans to continue to build global infrastructure that produces and supplies recycled plastic waste and green materials. The company is also considering investing in green material production facilities with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons in 2025.
Kim Eung-soo, head of SK chemicals’ copolyester business division, said, “Globally, the ‘plastic-free’ trend is accelerating due to environmental UN conventions and domestic and foreign regulations on plastics,” and added, “We plan to expand our recycled plastic business capabilities by securing global bases.”
Following the world’s first commercialization of chemically recycled copolyester last year, SK chemicals has also established a mass production system this year for SKYPET CR, which is chemically recycled PET. The goal is to grow into a leading company for chemically recycled plastics by 2030 through the secured infrastructure.
Meanwhile, according to a McKinsey report, the recycled plastics market is expected to account for 60% of the total plastics market in 2050 and a new market worth KRW 600 trillion will be created. SK chemicals plans to increase the proportion of recycled materials sales to 50% in 2025 and 100% in 2030 along with the expansion of its copolyester production capacity.
Photo description: Park No-hyuk (first from right), general manager of SK chemicals (Shanghai) and Im Soo-gwang, the division president of Shuye are taking a commemorative photo at Shantou City on the 25th after signing an MOU to establish a joint venture for chemical recycling and establish a production plant.