Lotte Group expands overseas investments in Southeast Asia

Lotte Group is investing 7 trillion won ($4.87 billion) in Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe, following its announcement to invest 37 trillion won in the Korean market, the group said, Thursday.

Chairman Shin Dong-bin recently visited Indonesia’s LINE investment project and the groundbreaking ceremony of Vietnam’s Thu Thiem Eco Smartcity project to inspect the conglomerate’s investments overseas.

The LINE project is being pursued by Lotte’s chemical arm, Lotte Chemical. With a total investment of $3.9 billion, which is the largest among Lotte’s overseas investments, Lotte Chemical will build a new ethylene production factory in Banten Province. Once completed in 2025, the facility will have an annual production capability of 1 million tons of ethylene, 0.52 million tons of propylene and 0.25 million tons of polypropylene.

After the completion of the LINE project in Indonesia, Lotte Chemical will be able to produce 5.5 million tons of ethylene at its Korean and overseas facilities per year and solidify its status as the largest ethylene producer here.

The LINE project will also be Indonesia’s first naphtha cracking center, contributing to the development of the Southeast Asian country’s petrochemical industry. Indonesia currently relies on imports to meet about 50 percent of its total demand for petrochemical products.

The Thu Thiem Eco Smartcity project in Vietnam is also gaining attention, shedding light on Lotte E&C’s capability as an urban site developer.

Located in Ho Chi Minh City, the project is worth about $900 million. Lotte will develop a large complex that has offices, hotels, residences and movie theaters. It will have five basement levels and 60 floors above ground on a 50,000-square-meter site.

In 2023, Lotte will also open Lotte Mall Hanoi, in which the group invested 330 billion won to build. The shopping mall will house shopping areas, movie theaters, hotels and residences.

In order to capture a bigger slice of the global market for electric vehicle materials, Lotte Group’s subsidiaries are also investing in the U.S. and Hungary. Lotte Chemical and Lotte Aluminum are investing a total of 330 billion won in the U.S. to establish an aluminum foil manufacturing unit called Lotte Aluminum Materials USA. Lotte Aluminum also injected 110 billion won into its Hungarian factory to double aluminum foil production capacity.