Hanwha, DL Chemical split Yeochun NCC joint venture as their partnership ends

Hanhwa Solutions and Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. have decided to part ways after being partners for more than two decades, 23 years to be exact. They have set up the YEOCHUN NCC Co., Ltd. chemicals company in 1999 through a joint venture, and with the end of their collaboration, the YNCC will also be divided.

According to The Korea Economic Daily, business analysts said that Hanhwa Solutions and Daelim Industrial Co. were pushed to go on their separate ways due to many reasons including the worsening profitability and the petrochem plant explosion that killed four in February this year.

Hanhwa and DL Chemical’s Yeochun NCC business has become a top petrochemical producer in South Korea, owing to the good management and cooperation of the companies. However, both parties agreed that it is time to end their joint venture.

The two are now in discussions on how they will split up their naphtha cracking facilities since it is a 50:50 JV between Hanwha Solutions Corp. and DL Chemical Co. YNCC is operating four naphtha cracking factories inside the industrial complex located in Yeosu which is around 340 kilometer from the southwestern part of Seoul.

The plants crack naphtha, which is a feedstock for different petrochemical products. With the cracking, YNCC produces basic raw materials, including ethylene, propylene, and butadiene, which are then supplied for production at DL Chemical and Hanhwa Group of companies.

The joint venture’s No. 1 to No. 3 plants have a combined capacity of producing 2.29 million tons of various petrochemical products like benzene, xylene, and toluene. On the other hand, the company’s fourth factory is a place where styrene monomer (SM) and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) are being manufactured.

Meanwhile, YNCC is being led by two chief executive officers coming from Hanwha Solutions and DL Chemical. Sources in the business sector said that the companies are planning to split their chemical JV through a spin-off method where YNCC will distribute the shares of two new companies after the split, to its existing shareholders based on a pro-rata basis.

“We are considering various ways to promote Yeochun NCC’s continued growth over the long term,” a company official at YNCC said in a statement.