Hyundai Oilbank, Cosmo Oil to build paraxylene J/V plant

TOKYO, June 9 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Oilbank Corp., South Korea's fourth-largest refiner, and Japan's Cosmo Oil Co. agreed Tuesday to set up a 50-50 joint venture this year to produce paraxylene at an investment of US$600 million each, Hyundai officials said.

The plant's construction is aimed at meeting China's growing demand for the
petrochemical product, which is used in synthetic fibers such as polyester.
Hyundai and Cosmo signed a memorandum of agreement earlier in the day in Tokyo
that called for the two partners to build the plant with an annual production
capacity of 800,000 tons in the city of Seosan on South Korea's west coast by
2013.
The South Korean oil firm has an oil refinery in South Korea that handles 390,000
barrels a day, while the Japanese firm runs four refineries with a combined
processing capacity of 640,000 barrels a day. The two companies are partly owned
by the Abu Dhabi government's investment arm, International Petroleum Investment
Co.
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