South Korean chemical manufacturer Lotte Chemical Titan expects to start the construction of a US$4 billion naphtha cracker plant in Cilegon, Banten, next year.

The facility will produce ethylene, propylene, polypropylene, polyethylene, polymer, olefin and aromatics – material for the manufacturing of plastics, synthetic fibers, paint and pharmaceuticals.

Industry Ministry Airlangga Hartarto said on Friday that when the plant’s construction was completed within four to five years, the country’s production of such chemicals would increase to 2 million tons a year from the current 900,000 tons.

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The ministry’s director of upstream chemical industry, Muhammad Khayam, said after accompanying the minister in a meeting with Lotte Chemical’s executives in Jakarta that the plant’s operation would help reduce the country’s annual foreign exchange spending on chemical imports by $1.5 billion from US$15 billion presently.

Lotte Chemical Titan’s plant, Khayam said, would be constructed on an 80-hectare plot of land, including 50 ha of which will be procured from state-owned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel. The company will open the tender for the plant’s construction later this year. (yon/hwa)