The company said it established a joint venture with a German company in Frankfurt and the two will build a factory in Seosan, South Chungcheong. Industry insiders said the company will be able to lower the cost of making carbon black by using its own slurry oil. Previously, the company has been using slurry oil in blending Bunker-C oil or selling it to carbon black makers.
The factory will be built on an 86,000-square-meter plot of land and is estimated to produce an average of 160,000 tons of carbon black per year. The factory is expected to start operating from 2017. „We expect to make an average of 300 billion won (US$271 million) in revenue per year globally by using our partner‘s sales network,“ said Koo Ja-in, spokesman of the company.
„What we are trying to do is to improve our profits, which were heavily focused on oil refining,“ the company said. „By establishing a joint venture with the German company, the very first step of shaping up the new businesses has been wrapped up.“
The company said such efforts were necessary since the oil-refining business is going through a hard time due to falling international oil prices. In the third quarter of this year, the nation‘s top four oil companies – Hyundai, SK Innovation, GS Caltex and S-Oil – have posted combined revenues of 39.3 trillion won, a steady decrease from 41.7 trillion won in the third quarter of 2013 and 44.4 trillion won in 2012.
(dw)
