Chemical and battery firm LG Chem plans to inject $100 million to the acrylotitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) business by 2018 in a bid to secure its top position in the global market, the company said Monday.

LG Chem said it would increase the annual capacity of its ABS plant in China by 150,000 tons, leading to a total of 300,000 tons of annual capacity. The Korean company jointly established the ABS plant in Guangdong Province with Chinese state-run energy firm Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporaiton in 2008. 

ABS, a thermoplastic polymer, is a high value material that endures high temperatures, resists impact and can be modified into any form.

With the enlarged Chinese plant, LG Chem will have a total of 2 million tons of ABS production capacity at home and abroad, raising the market share from 21 percent to 26 percent. It has kept the top position in the ABS market for years.

Independently making the investment to the ABS Chinese plant, LG Chem’s share for the joint company increased from 50 percent to 70 percent. The battery firm projected that the new investment would draw 700 billion won ($613 million) of more sales, it said.

LG Chem has aggressively sped up its moves to improve its competitiveness in the basic material market by enlarging the ethylene plant and transforming the polystyrene plants into ABS lines earlier this year. 

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)