Seoul, Frankfurt, March 24 ?SK chemicals, a leading international chemical company from Korea, achieved a milestone in the history of the domestic chemical industry by exporting PTA technology to China. The company became the first Korean chemical firm to export its own technology to a foreign country, which thus far has only been importing technologies from advanced companies overseas. PTA is an intermediate material for producing polyester. SK chemicals introduced PTA technology from Eastman of the United States in the late 1980s in an attempt to realize the vertical linage of a ?from crude oil to textile? production scheme being pursued by the SK Group. Since then, the company has doubled its production by 100 percent and cut costs drastically through continuous renovations in production technology and research & development efforts to secure worldwide competitiveness. Having won global recognition on the excellence of these innovative technologies, in May 2002 SK chemicals forged an alliance on the joint-export of PTA technologies with two companies: Eastman with its core technologies, and Germany-based engineering company Lurgi. As the first fruition of this alliance they came to export their technology to Hualian Sunshine Petrochemical (HSP), a private joint venture in the People?s Republic of China. The alliance of the three companies managed to secure the deal in China, the world?s largest market, after beating out cutthroat competition from world-renowned rivals in the U.S. and Japan. Thus, they proved that the excellence of their technology is recognized worldwide. This in turn brightens the prospect for additional exports of the alliance?s technologies to China and other Southeast Asian countries down the road. The signing of the technology export deal was made on January 29 with the four companies (Eastman, SK chemicals, Lurgi, and HSP) in attendance. The companies have already started in earnest the implementation of the plant construction project. Under the deal, a new PTA plant with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons will be constructed in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. SK Chemical will receive about $3 million of the $12 million in total technology licensing fees, and will carry out such additional tasks as basic design, training on operation, and supervision of construction for the plant.
Referring to the technology export, President Hong Ji-ho of SK chemicals said ?Since the three major players from three continents - namely Asia, Europe and America - joined forces, they are expected to maintain an unrivalled position not only in the Asian but also in the global PTA licensing business. The technology export is also significant in that it created a new business model based on intangible assets.?In addition to the aforementioned deal, SK chemicals is taking steps to export its technology to six or seven companies in China, Poland and Russia, and expects to see fruitful results shortly.