SEOUL, KOREA - Lotte Chemical said on November 8 that it has established a joint venture "Lotte Versalis Elastomers" in cooperation with Versalis, an affiliate under the umbrella of Italy's state-run oil company Eni Group. The joint venture will begin construction of a plant in Lotte Chemical's Yeosu site to produce 200,000 tons of solution-polymerized styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR) and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber in 2014.
By the second half of 2016, the plant will be commercially operational. SSBR is a core material to produce environmentally friendly tires and EPDM rubber is used to manufacture a variety of industrial components.
Versalis posted a sales revenue of 6.5 billion euros (US$8.7 billion) last year. The company plans to invest $100 million for the plant, although the exact amount and share of investment by the two companies are yet to be determined.
Lotte Chemical said that the newly established plant will have an import substitution and export growth effect of 600 billion won, with an estimated 150,000 jobs to be created in related industries.