Loop, SK Geocentric to deploy Loop’s technology in Asian market

Loop Industries, a Montreal-based technology company focused on accelerating a circular economy for plastics, has signed a definitive joint venture agreement with SK Geo Centric Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of South Korea-based SK Group, to deploy Loop’s technology in the Asian market through multiple commercial manufacturing facilities.

According to a news release, SK Geo Centric will own 51 percent of the venture, which will be headquartered in Singapore, and Loop will have the remaining 49 percent ownership. Under the joint venture agreement, the venture will have exclusive rights to commercialize Loop’s technology in the Asian market for a prescribed period, and Loop will license its technology for an annual royalty for each of the commercial plants.

Loop says the first planned commercial manufacturing facility with its Infinite Loop technology, located in Ulsan, South Korea, will have an annual capacity to supply 70,000 metric tons per year of Loop’s polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin for packaging and polyester fiber applications. The company says that facility is anticipated to break ground this year and have construction completed by the end of 2025.

RELATED: SK Geo Centric discusses its plans for a circular economy in Asia

In addition to that facility, the partners have outlined plans that target a minimum of three additional commercial manufacturing facilities to be constructed throughout Asia by 2030. Loop and SK Geo Centric have partnered with SK engineering, a subsidiary of the SK Group that offers expertise for the engineering and construction of these commercial manufacturing facilities.

“It is a great pleasure to join into this meaningful partnership to commercialize Loop’s technology in Asia," SK Geo Centric CEO Kyungsoo Na says. "We will strive for the successful completion of the advanced recycling complex in Ulsan, which will function as a significant steppingstone for a future expansion throughout Asia. Through this [joint venture] agreement, we expect the two partners to make a great leap towards the realization of a circular plastics economy and achieve our vision ‘Green for Better Life’.”

According to Loop, Asia is the largest global market for PET and polyester fiber and is at the center of global manufacturing, making it a good opportunity for the venture. By converting low-value PET and polyester fiber into recycled, virgin-quality Loop PET resin, Loop says it can help to transform the Asian PET plastic and polyester fiber markets, reducing reliance on finite resources and diminishing environmental impacts.

“We are extremely proud to partner with [SK Geo Centric] to create an infinitely recyclable and globally accessible circular economy for PET plastic and polyester fiber. Loop and SK [Geocentric] have worked closely together for several years, and the two companies complement each other very well by providing different areas of expertise to achieve our common goal of bringing an end-to-end solution with a compelling value proposition to our customer base,” Loop founder and CEO Daniel Solomita says. “By expanding Loop’s manufacturing footprint into Asia, our global [consumer packaged goods] brand customers who use polyester fiber for textiles will have the opportunity to incorporate Loop branded material into their products and create circularity for their textile waste by recycling it at our manufacturing facilities.”