South Korea’s Lotte Chemical to proceed with Indonesia project after delay

Lotte Chemical in a bourse filing informed that that company has decided to proceed with the 5 trillion won ($4.4 billion) petrochemical project in Cilegon, Indonesia after the previous delay due the pandemic.

The project named Lotte Chemical Indonesia New Ethylene (LINE) would commence construction in 2022 and the company aims to bring the plant online in 2025. LINE consists of a mixed feeds cracker that could product 1 million tons/year of ethylene and 520,000 tons/year of propylene, and downstream PE plants, “However, the final investment and plant design might be larger than the initial plan,” a Lotte Chemical official said.

On 28 October 2021, Lotte Chemical awarded two contracts worth US$1.64 billion involving engineering and construction work for the new project to Lotte Engineering & Construction Co Ltd (LEC).

Lotte Chemical has already established presence in Indonesia via PT Lotte Chemical which operates a non-integrated 450,000 tons/year PE plant and uses ethylene feed from its sister company in Malaysia.