I took the opportunity of this announcement of LG to rephrase the estimated growth of acrylic acid and SAP :

 

August 19, 2015: LG Chem says it has completed expansion work on its acrylic acid and a super absorbent polymer (SAP) plants at Yeosu, South Korea.

 

The company announced the 320 billion South Korean won ($269.7 million) expansion at the end of 2013. The project raised acrylic acidcapacity from 350 kt/a to 510 kt/a and added 80 kt/a SAP capacity, bringing the total at Yeosu to 360 kt/a.

 

LG Chem, following the hike, ranks as the world’s fifth largest in acrylic acid and fourth-largest in SAP in capacity terms. The company forecasts an additional won300 billion in sales following the new investment.

 

LG Chem is planning to increase its acrylic acid and SAP-related salesby 600 billion won (US$504 million) or so to at least 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) by 2020. LG Chem forecasts the market for acrylic acid to grow from 4.9 mt/a last year to 6.7 mt/a by 2020, while that of SAP is estimated to increase from 2.3 mt/a to 3.4 mt/a during the next five years.

 

 

LG Chem had delved into the materials since the 1990s and came up with its own acrylic acid catalyst and production techniques in 2004 for the first time in Korea. At present, only a handful of companies such as BASF, Dow, NSCL, and Mitsubishi have their own processing techniques in this industry.

 

Last year, BASF and Sinopec have inaugurated two new plants for acrylic acid (160 kt/a) and SAP (60 kt/a) at their Verbund site, BASF-YPC Co., Ltd. in Nanjing, China to further strengthen the C3 (propylene) value chain. (see: BASF and Sinopec inaugurate acrylic acid and SAP plants in Nanjing, China)

 

In December 2013, Mitsubishi Chemical and SK Global Chemical, through a strategic alliance with, planned to build an acrylic acid plant at Ulsan, Korea by 2016. (see: SK Global to build acrylic acid and derivatives plants in Korea as part of portfolio diversification) The plant will be designed to produce 160 kt/a acrylic acid. SK is considering construction of a SAP plant using acrylic acid from the new plant.

 

Source: Solvya blog competitive intelligence blog from “Chemweek” and “BusinessKorea”