LG Chem Adds Another Customer Support 'Tech Center' in China... Asia Triangular Formation

Investment Agreement (MOU) Signed with Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province for Establishing 'Huadong Tech Center'... About 30 Billion KRW Investment for Full Operation Around May Next Year
Asia Triangular Customer Support System Connecting Osan (KR), Huanan (CN), and Huadong (CN)
Future Expansion of Global Tech Centers to Americas and Europe Also Under Consideration

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] LG Chem is establishing a triangular customer support system across Korea and China in Asia. This involves adding another 'Tech Center' in China to closely support customized technologies desired by global local customers.

LG Chem announced on the 3rd that it recently signed an investment agreement (MOU) to establish a Tech Center in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China. According to this agreement, LG Chem will invest approximately 30 billion KRW to build the 'East China (Huadong) Tech Center' in Wuxi's High-tech Zone (Gaoxin District), which will be dedicated to local customer technical support and development tasks. Wuxi City will provide the necessary land and infrastructure for construction and operation. Construction will begin in the first half of this year, with full operation planned around May next year. With this, LG Chem will operate three Tech Centers: the existing Osan Tech Center in Gyeonggi Province, the South China Tech Center in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, and the new East China Tech Center. There is also potential to expand Tech Centers to the Americas and Europe in the future.

The East China Tech Center will be a three-story building with a total floor area of about 10,000 square meters (approximately 3,000 pyeong, according to Chinese building standards). To provide customized support for customers, it will feature pilot facilities equivalent in scale to the mass production equipment that actual customers have. Approximately 9 billion KRW will be invested solely in these processing and advanced analytical facilities. Half of the research staff, including local hires, will hold master's degrees or higher, equipping the center with facilities and expertise comparable to those of a mid-sized company research institute. Additionally, about 60 research and development personnel, including an applied technology team and dedicated teams for major products, will be stationed to provide customer technical support.

The East China Tech Center was chosen as the optimal location due to the presence of many of LG Chem's key customers in automotive materials and food packaging in the area. About 60% of the petrochemical business division's sales in China come from the East China region, making strategic technical collaboration and support activities with local customers necessary. LG Chem's cathode material production corporation is also located in Wuxi's High-tech Zone.

No Gukrae, head of LG Chem's Petrochemical Business Division, stated, "The East China Tech Center will play a key role in leading the Chinese market with LG Chem's technologically differentiated products by strengthening customer responsiveness through customized support optimized for the local Chinese market. We will continue to expand investment in the Tech Center, a specialized technical support organization that starts from the customer's pain points and provides differentiated insights to customers."

Currently, the South China Tech Center focuses on supporting customers in IT and electronic materials. Since its establishment in 2015, the number of new development and on-site technical support cases requested by local customers is reported to have increased up to 20 times. The Osan Tech Center is dedicated to technical support for domestic and global customers and focuses on developing future processing technologies.

The Tech Centers are LG Chem's differentiated technical service & development (TS&D) specialized organizations that provide technical solutions ranging from product development to quality improvement, productivity enhancement, and equipment modification for customers and partners purchasing petrochemical products. They listen to customers' voices and proactively propose products with improved issues and performance based on customers' pain points.

For example, a customer using high-performance synthetic resin (ABS) metallic materials to achieve a metallic texture was able to effectively replace the existing painting process through injection molding methods and material improvements developed by LG Chem's Tech Center, resulting in cost savings of up to 60%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.