"For the past 20 years, Korea has been a very important market for LANXESS. We are currently bringing products developed and manufactured in China and Taiwan into Korea for sale. As we expand our business in the future, we are not ruling out placing production and research and development (R&D) facilities in Korea."
Vice Chair Hubert Fink of LANXESS said this while outlining the approach to the Korean market at a press briefing for "LANXESS Solutions Day Seoul" held on the 10th at FKI Tower in Yeouido, Seoul.
LANXESS is a specialty chemicals company that spun off from the German pharmaceutical company Bayer in 2005. Its main products are specialty additives, and it supplies products to semiconductor, battery, shipbuilding, and defense corporations. It said it could not disclose names, but that most major domestic corporations are customers. As of last year, it posted sales of 6.4 billion euros (about 10.9 trillion won).
LANXESS operates in 32 countries worldwide and established a sales subsidiary in Korea in 2006. The Korean subsidiary, LANXESS Korea, mainly distributes products to domestic customers. Production plants in Asia are in China and Taiwan.
Fink emphasized, "The downstream industries for the products LANXESS develops and manufactures match Korea's key industries, such as semiconductors and shipbuilding," adding, "Korea is an important market to the extent that we are reviewing the construction of an R&D facility."
He particularly noted the importance of the semiconductor materials business. He said, "We expect demand for ultrapure chemical products to increase significantly in the process of removing impurities during semiconductor production," and added, "Innovation in chemical products is necessary in step with advances in artificial intelligence (AI). We are working closely with customers to develop new materials."
Park Jun-sung, CEO of LANXESS Korea, said, "Over the past 20 years, as Korea's key industries have developed rapidly and become more advanced, LANXESS supported that change through a portfolio shift," adding, "We will continue to work closely with domestic customers and partners to support sustainable growth."
Amid a downturn in the global petrochemical market due to oversupply from China, LANXESS is regarded as a corporation that boldly restructured its business years ago to overcome the crisis. Over the past nine years, LANXESS sold a total of five major petrochemical businesses and its entire synthetic rubber business, securing about 6.2 billion euros (about 10.6 trillion won) in liquidity. It then spent 4.2 billion euros (about 7.18 trillion won) to acquire about 10 specialty corporations that produce specialty additives and high-performance intermediates.
Fink added, "We are facing difficulties worldwide due to oversupply from China, and LANXESS is also affected in some product categories," but noted, "By working with customers, we have identified niche markets, and in these areas we are finding solutions that fit our customers to respond to the crisis."