South Korean chemical firm, LG Chem, has claimed its recently completed construction of a reverse osmosis (RO) water filter production plant in Korea will springboard its drive for global market leadership.
LG Chem has invested some KRW 40 billion (US$ 33.7 million) in the plant at Cheongju, North Chungcheong province. The plant will begin production in September according to LG Chem. “LG Chem will boost the capacity of the RO filters as the company aims to generate KRW 2 trillion (US$ 1.7 billion) in revenue from its water treatment- related businesses by 2020, which is equivalent to a 10% global share,” said a company spokesman.
Chief executive officer of LG Chem, Park Jin-soo, said: “LG has identified the water treatment business as a next growth engine.” He asaid the firm had been making “all-out efforts with all its research and development capabilities to increase its foothold in the emerging market for water treatment.
“With the newly built RO water filter plant, the company will try to tap into global markets and take the leadership in the global water treatment industry,” he added.
The company in April last year acquired US-based desalination technology company NanoH2O. Since that move LG Chem has developed commercial and industrial water filter technologies, and it has added to its global commercial capacity with sales and technical support offices in China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Europe, Turkey, Korea and the US.
The company, said it has installed water treatment filters at around 400 desalination facilities in some 50 nations.
The firm claimed that the reverse osmosis water filters to be rolled out at the Cheongju plant will have “30% improved performance compared to the existing water filtering technology.” It claims its filters for seawater, in particular, boast the industry’s highest salt rejection rate, at 99.85%.