South Korea’s major chemical firm and battery maker LG Chem said it will continue to brace for the “fourth industrial revolution” and pioneer the market, focusing on business growth in its units of basic material, chemical, electronic information material, battery and life science businesses in South Korea and internationally. 

LG Chem said it plans to invest 3.8 trillion won ($3.4 billion) in capital expenditure, a 52 percent increase on-year, with an aim of advancing its business structure and strengthening research and development.

The company said it aims to become a global top 5 in the chemical industry, by upgrading its R&D foundation.

LG Chem has invested the largest by far with 900 billion won in R&D last year, and aims to increase the investment scale by 10 percent each year. 

For its base material unit, the company aims to be in the global top three by expanding the production capacity of elastomer to 290,000 tons by the end of 2018. Elastomer is a high-value-added synthetic resin that features both rubber and plastic. The firm said it has secured key technologies for elastomer, which are metallocene catalysts and process technologies.

The company recently injected 25 billion won in constructing Carbon nanotube factory in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province and began operating the production line in January last year. It plans to establish more lines by the end of 2019. 

LG Chem’s electronic information material unit plans to reinforce its existing businesses, such as Polaroid, and strengthen new business in water treatment and functional films. LG Chem said it will continue to aggressively expand its Polaroid production lines in China. It also signed a supply deal with the Egyptian government for a 300,000-ton seawater desalination facility for water treatment in June last year.

As for the company’s battery division, LG Chem said it aims to retain its top position in third-generation electric vehicles, which can travel for more than 500 kilometers. The company also plans to make a foray into the ESS battery market with its unique performance and cost efficiency. 

LG Chem’s life sciences business plans to focus on developing biomedicines and vaccine as well as continue to foster its new metabolic disease medicine Zemiglo, which was developed in 2012 with an investment of 47 billion won.

The company has been concentrating on expanding lineups of Zemiglo combo drugs recently after its launching of Zemiro last year, which merged a DPP-4 inhibitor with lipid reduction drug rosuvastatin. It was the first time that such combination drug was released in the Korean market.

It also aims to solidify its position as major biomedicine developer by targeting diabetes and related diseases for new drug development.