SK Geo Centric, China’s Sinopec mark 10-year alliance

China-Korea Petrochemical, a joint venture (JV) between South Korea’s SK Geo Centric and the Chinese public oil company Sinopec, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

The two companies on Saturday held a ceremony to mark the milestone at their JV plant in Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei province.

In 2013, SK Geo Centric put up 35% and Sinopec 65% of their joint investment of 3.3 trillion won ($2.4 billion) to set up the JV. Employing about 3,000 staff, the business produces annually key chemical products like 1.1 million tons of ethylene, 900,000 tons of polyethylene and 700,000 tons of polypropylene.

Based on its JV experience with Sinopec, SK Geo Centric is strengthening global cooperation with American and Japanese partners in plastic waste recycling and output of high value-added chemical materials.

With PureCycle Technologies of the US, it will start construction of Ulsan Advanced Recycling Cluster, the world’s first plastic recycling complex with a general design, in the southern port city of Ulsan. SK Geo Centric is also collaborating with Japanese chemical company Tokuyama and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. of Saudi Arabia to manufacture high value-added chemicals and expand product lines.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com