Revealing his willingness to pursue policies to strengthen competitiveness in the bio industry
Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang visited the LG Chem’s Osong plant on January 3 to assess recent domestic and international bioindustry trends and discuss measures to strengthen Korea’s competitiveness.
Minister Lee received a briefing from the company’s President Son Jee-woong on company operations and issues, led discussions on bioindustry trends and toured the facilities, encouraging the site employees, a ministry spokesman said on Jan. 4.
Bio is one of the major future foods along with semiconductors and secondary batteries. Until now, it has been a pharmaceutical-oriented industry, but new demand for energy fuels and raw materials in the carbon-neutral era is also emerging.
Major countries are also expanding policy support, with the U.S. announcing an executive order for the bio-economy in September last year and China announcing a five-year plan for the bio-economy in May last year.
LG Chem is also expanding its business area from existing biopharmaceuticals. Currently, it has started commercializing bio-materials by promoting the construction of a 75,000-ton bioplastic production plant in the U.S. per year. In addition, the company is pushing to commercialize biofuels by building a production plant for next-generation bio-oil hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) in Daesan, Chungcheongnam-do Province.