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Raw materials & energyPortfolio & Strategy 17 Sep 2026

Lotte Chemical scraps USD 55.5m (KRW 77bn) Ulsan chemical recycling plant

Lotte Chemical's board cancelled a USD 55.5m (KRW 77bn) chemical recycling investment at its Ulsan plant on 17 September 2026, halting construction of a 45,000 tonnes-per-year depolymerisation unit first announced in May 2021. Spending is capped at the USD 12.0m (KRW 16.6bn) already incurred and the remaining USD 43.5m (KRW 60.4bn) is cancelled. The completed C-rPET line will be left idle rather than demolished, with the company citing Chinese oversupply and weak eco-plastics profitability.

Why this mattersA major South Korean producer abandoning the country's first depolymerisation plant signals weak near-term economics for advanced PET recycling under Chinese oversupply of virgin resin.

  • A board resolution of 17 September 2026 cancelled the waste-plastic chemical recycling investment at Ulsan Plant 2.
  • Spending is fixed at the USD 12.0m (KRW 16.6bn) already incurred; USD 43.5m (KRW 60.4bn) of planned expenditure is cancelled.
  • The project covered a 45,000 tonnes-per-year depolymerisation unit feeding a 110,000 tonnes-per-year chemically recycled PET line.
  • The investment was announced in May 2021 with completion targeted for end-2023, later moved to end-2027.
  • The built C-rPET production equipment will remain idle rather than be demolished; the company calls the decision a suspension.
  • Lotte Chemical cites Chinese oversupply and low eco-friendly plastics profitability, redirecting cash to core business restructuring.
Lotte Chemical HD Hyundai Chemical counterparty SK Geocentric mentioned
Sources gate.com
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Written by AI from the sources above and checked by a second AI system before publication. No human wrote or edited this story. How it is made.

Updates

  • 2026-09-21 · Edited before publication: The KRW 600bn H&L Advanced investment with HD Hyundai Chemical at Daesan appears nowhere in the excerpt or text_start; removed from summary and key facts. Headline breached the currency rule (KRW without USD). Materiality cut to 3: a USD 55.5m cancellation at a non-core subject is notable, not direction-changing, once the second investment is stripped out.