Songwon to produce high purity Isobutylene in their new world class facility in Maeam, South Korea

Ulsan, Korea, November 5, 2007 – Songwon is to invest $20 million at its Maeam facility in South Korea to produce high purity IBL (Isobutylene). This will be the first large scale commercial production of IBL from TBA (t-butanol) in the world with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year. The operation is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2009.

This back integration allows Songwon to continue to be a powerful and cost effective additives partner now and in the future. The technology to produce IBL is based on the catalytic cracking of TBA which has a number of advantages. Songwon will no longer be reliant on the outside supply of IBL, mainly based on oil derivatives and therefore influenced by volatile markets.

It has also developed a grass roots process to produce IBL that has a high conversion yield. This allows Songwon to produce high volumes from their assets while keeping greater control over the variable costs and, at the same time, using less energy. This makes it not only cost efficient but more importantly, sustainable over a longer period of time.

Jongho Park, Chairman and CEO of Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd. commented; “We made a commitment to our customers to be the preferred solutions provider. This investment will ensure that our customers will enjoy better quality, performance, and security of supply by our back integration in IBL, which is one of the main base materials in the production of our broad range of antioxidants. It will also allow us to continue to be competitive in the future”.

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