South Korean Honam Considering Indonesia Petrochemical Plants

South Korea's Honam Petrochemical Corp said it was considering building a petrochemical complex in Indonesia, which market estimates indicate could cost up to 5 trillion won ($4.49 billion).

Asia's No.2 petrochemical maker reported to the stock market that it was considering building petrochemical plants in foreign countries including Indonesia under its mid- and long-term plans, although nothing had been finalized.

Honam has a combined production capacity of 2.5 million tons per year (tpy) in South Korea and Malaysia, where it received takeover approval from shareholders of Malaysia's largest petrochemicals maker Titan Chemicals Corp last December.

"This long-term investment consideration includes building an at least 1 million tpy naphtha cracker and downstream plants," said a company source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. The source quoted a market estimate putting the cost of construction at up to 5 trillion won.

He said through 2015 the company would first sort out financing issues for the project to enable a final decision, while construction would take about a year to complete.

The completed complex would make Honam Petrochemical Asia's No.1 petrochemicals maker, he said, adding that this investment consideration was based upon studies of market outlook, and supply and demand balances.

Last month, South Korea's Lotte Group, which owns 57.2% of Honam Petrochemical, said it was considering investing as much as $5 billion to build a petrochemical plant in Indonesia.