Lotte Chemical has scheduled mechanical completion of its Yulchon Industrial Complex advanced materials plant for the second half of 2026, the South Korean firm said.
Once complete, the plant, which will be operated by Lotte Chemical subsidiary Lotte Engineering Plastics, will produce around 500,000 tonnes/year of products such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC) and other compounding materials, Lotte Chemical said in a presentation on Wednesday.
Al Baleed Petrochemical has signed an agreement to receive natural gas from state gas firm Integrated Gas Company (IGC) for its petrochemicals complex currently under development in the Salalah Free Zone (SFZ) in Dhofar, south Oman, the Omani company announced on 7 November.
The firm has plans to build a 50,000 tonne/year maleic anhydride (MA) plant at the complex, with development supported by Italian chemical engineer MAIRE.Other plans include a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant, which will be developed jointly by Al Baleed and US energy tech firm Lummus, and plants that will produce formic acid, acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
BASF has started manufacture of the first products at its new Verbund integrated chemical complex in Zhanjiang, China. The company, which owns and controls the site, started construction in 2020; BASF’s board approved the main elements of the complex, including an ethylene steam cracker, in 2022. BASF says that at a total cost of $10 billion, the project’s construction is coming in under budget.
Ineos is in negotiations with its partner, the Chinese state-owned oil and chemical company Sinopec, to exit their petrochemical joint venture in Tianjin, China. Ineos bought into the partnership in 2023, when the complex was already under construction. According to Sinopec, it started up in 2024. The facility has a 1.2 million-metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker and downstream polyethylene and other derivatives units. In a financial report, Ineos said that move was “due to continuing weak market conditions in China.” The joint venture, as well as another Ineos partnership with Sinopec, Shanghai Secco Petrochemical, lost money in the third quarter.