South Korea is rising rapidly on the fist of world class petrochemical producers.
And it expects to increase its role as a producer this year.
South Korea was the world's sixth largest petrochemical producer last year, the Korea Petrochemical Industry Association said.
OPEC News Agency (Opecna) said the country had an ethylene production capacity of 2.55 million tons/year at the end of 1991, outpacing Netherlands with 2.54 million tons/year, Canada with 2.5 million tons/year, Saudi Arabia 2.24 million tons/year, and Britain 2.12 million tons/year.
The association told Opecna when naphtha crackers are completed by Honam Petrochemical Corp. and Hanyang Chemical Corp. late this year, South Korea's ethylene capacity will rise to 3.25 million tons/year and overtake France's 2.96 million tons/year as the fifth largest producer in the world.
Until the end of 1990, South Korea ranked 13th among world petrochemical producers, with its capacity hovering at about the 1.25 million ton/year mark.
The association said the country owed its jump to sixth place to the addition of naphtha crackers last year. The Lucky-Goldstar, Samsung, and Hyundai groups started up plants capable of producing 350,000 tons/year of ethylene, while Korea Petrochemicals brought a plant on stream with ethylene production of 250,000 tons/year.
The world's No. 1 ethylene producer is the U.S. at 20.49 million tons/year, followed by Japan with 6.42 million tons/year, Germany 5.9 million tons/year, and Commonwealth of Independent States 4.19 million tons/year.
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