SK Group is looking to bolster its core businesses and seek new growth by actively pursuing global expansion in partnerships with major companies from around the world. Faced with unfavorable market conditions and stagnant growth, SK has pledged to overcome such economic hurdles by stepping up its efforts to widen its presence in overseas markets this year.

SK Telecom, the group’s telecommunications unit and the nation’s No. 1 mobile carrier, has sealed a strategic partnership with the state-run Saudi Telecom Company to jointly pursue new business opportunities in the area of information and communications technology in the Middle East.

Joining hands with the Saudi telecom giant, SK Telecom plans to introduce its cutting-edge ICT technologies such as smart city planning, smart health care systems and the Internet of Things, as well as offering up its marketing expertise to the region.

SK hynix, Korea’s leading chipmaker which posted its best performance to date in 2014, invested around $250 million into opening a new chip manufacturing plant in Chongqing, China last year to strengthen its foothold on the world’s largest semiconductors market.

The plant, which began production in July 2014, produces around 80 million units of 16-gigabyte NAND flash chips that are used in mobile devices every month.

In a bid to drive up its exports, SK hynix also unveiled its new chip plant, the largest of its kind globally, in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province in August. It boasts a maximum production capacity of 200,000 300-millimeter semiconductor wafers per month, according to SK.

SK has announced plans to invest about 15 trillion won ($13.25 billion) into the new facility as well as an additional 31 trillion won into building two more plants in Korea in the coming years as well.

Faced with uncertainties in the global oil and petrochemicals sector, SK Innovation, the group’s energy business holding unit, has been working to vamp up its global competitiveness by establishing joint ventures with strategic global partners.

In an aim to bolster its business in China, SK and China’s Sinopec jointly established the Wuhan Naphtha Cracking Center, a petrochemicals plant in Wuhan, China boasting annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons of petrochemical products. The plant began operations last year.

In partnership with Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy, SK Global Chemical completed a new paraxylene production plant in Ulsan last year, built with an investment of 936.3 billion won.

Joining hands with the state-run Saudi Basic Industries in a joint venture, SK recently embarked onto the global premium polyethylene market, currently dominated by Dow Chemical, ExxonMobil and Mitsui Chemicals, with the completion of their new polyethylene plant in Ulsan.

The plant produces around 230,000 tons of Nexlene -- high-performance polyethylene developed by SK Innovation -- annually. Aiming to raise its annual production capacity to more than 1 million tons, SK and SABIC are planning to build an additional plant in Saudi Arabia in the coming years.

Meanwhile, SK, in partnership with Spain’s largest oils and gas company Repsol, is geared to expand its presence in Europe with the construction of the region’s largest lube base oils production facilities in Cartagena, Spain.

Built with an investment of around 3.3 billion euros ($3.75 million), the plant began full operations in Oct. 2014. It boasts an annual production capacity of 630,000 tons of premium lubricant base oils and is set to bolster SK’s presence in Europe, the world’s largest market for premium lube base oils.

Last year, SK purchased a 378.1 billion won stake in two U.S. shale gas reserves, as part of its ongoing efforts to develop shale gas in North America as a future growth engine.

“Amid negative market conditions including a plunge in interest rates and free-falling crude oil prices, SK will continue to boost its ICT-based creative economy drive and widen its business globally in a bid to develop new growth engines,” said Lee Man-woo, the head of SK Group’s public relations team.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)