Korea's first commercialization of PO

SK picglobal was founded as Yukong Arco Chemical, a joint venture established by Yukong Ltd., and ARCO Chemical, the US chemical corporation, in 1987. After signing a PO/SM license agreement with ARCO Chemical (now LyondellBasell), we have become the first company in Korea to successfully commercialize propylene oxide (PO), a raw material of polyurethane, in 1991. Based on this, we started chemical businesses, including propylene glycol (PG) and polyol.

World's first commercialization of eco-friendly PO production process

After consolidation into SKC's chemical business division in 2001, we applied the HPPO method, which produces PO in an eco-friendly way, for the first time in the world in 2008. The HPPO process was a new kind of technology that had existed only in laboratories and never been used in large factories until 2008. In contrast to other PO production processes, the HPPO process is an eco-friendly way; its by-product is water.

Expansion of high-value/eco-friendly products focusing on PG

In 2012, we have raised our production capacity by 130%, responding the increase in market demand. With the expansion of production capacity, we have developed and enhanced high-value downstream businesses including PG, a harmless chemical which is used as a raw ingredient for cosmetics and drugs.

Securing growth opportunity through global partnerships

After the spin-off in 2020, SKC chemical division was relaunched as SK picglobal, a joint venture with the Kuwaiti national petrochemical company, PIC (Petrochemical Industries Company). We will grow as a global company specialized in eco-friendly materials based on business expansion through global project cooperation that PIC is developing. Based on artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, we promise to be secured with the world-class plant operation capability in the areas of cost price, quality and logistics, and carry out new business based on social value creation—including waste plastic chemical recycling—as our drivers of future growth.