PLENTIFUL PLASTICS

PTTGC plans to focus on asset acquisitions and mergers this year to supply high-quality raw materials.

PTT Global Chemical Plc (PTTGC), Thailand’s largest petrochemical maker by capacity, has set a business goal this year to focus on asset acquisitions and mergers to supply high-quality raw materials to automobile, electronics and construction industries, says PTTGC chief executive Kongkrapan Intarajang.

The new businesses it targets are related to petrochemical production that will add value to the company’s commodity-grade polymers, paving the way for new opportunities across industrial sectors.

“Despite the global economic recession, it is the right time for us to purchase new assets to pursue our goal of highvalue polymers,” said Mr Kongkrapan.

He did not elaborate on planned deals.

The latest asset acquired by PTTGC dates back to 2012 when it acquired a 51% share in the France-based Perstorp Holding France SAS, a manufacturer of toluene diisocyanate, hexamethylene diisocyanate and derivatives.

Earlier in 2011, PTTGC acquired a 50% share in NatureWorks LLC in the US, the world’s largest producer of plastic resin derived from plant material. Its main production facility, located in the Cargill Biorefinery Campus in Blair, Nebraska, has a nameplate capacity of 140 million tonnes of resin per year.

PTTGC’s move towards high-value polymer products is in the same direction as IRPC Plc, another petrochemical arm of PTT.

IRPC teamed up with its parent firm to conduct a feasibility study to develop polymers for use in a process to make rubber gloves, N95 face masks and ordinary face masks.

Mr Kongkrapan said PTTGC expects its revenue will grow 8-10% this year due mainly to additional capacity from three new petrochemical production facilities in Map Ta Phut, Rayong.

They have an annual combined capacity of 1.03 million tonnes to produce olefins, propylene oxide and polyols.

PTTGC will decide in the middle of this year whether to continue a project to develop a petrochemical cracker in the US after its South Korean partner Daelim Industrial Co, a leading Korean construction and chemical company, withdrew from the joint venture.

The development of an ethylene production facility with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes in Ohio will not stop, though it would mean PTTGC needs to conduct the feasibility study alone, the firm said last year.