South Korea's LG Chem and state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will invest a total of $370 million to build a petrochemical plant in China by 2011, LG Chem said in a statement. The two companies would each hold a 50 % stake in the plant, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, which would produce 150,000 tons of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) annually from 2011 and 300,000 tons annually by 2013, the statement said. It said CNOOC and LG Chem, the world's largest ABS producer by market share, planned to market the output in southern China - the country's largest ABS market, accounting for half of the 3.4 million tons consumed in the country - with a sales target of $300 million by 2012 and $600 million by 2014.

The new plant will lift LG Chem's annual production in China to 1 millon tons, and to 1.6 million tons overall, bringing LG Chem's ABS output level with that of Taiwan's Chi Mei Corp , the world's largest producer by capacity. ABS is a thermoplastic used in the production of electrical, electronic and automobile components because of its thermal endurance and electrical properties. Seperately, LG Chem plans to expand an existing ABS plant in Ningbo, southern China to 700,000 tons by 2012 from 580,000 tons. It also produces 600,000 tons per year at a plant in Yeosu, south of Seoul. CNOOC, China's largest offshore oil producer, operates its oil and gas production businesses via listed CNOOC.