Producer
LG Chem (NBR Latex)
3
Inputs supplied
1
Goods downstream
0
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
3 inputs LG Chem (NBR Latex) supplies
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Petrochemicals
55%Advanced Materials
23%Life Sciences
5%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2022
LG Chem's Fine Chemicals division manufactures Imidacloprid API — the world's single highest-volume insecticide, a neonicotinoid used in crop protection, pet flea treatments, and structural termite control globally — alongside Deltamethrin, Lambda-cyhalothrin, and Cypermethrin pyrethroid APIs used in both agriculture and WHO-mandated malaria/dengue vector control programs. The same company also manufactures Iopromide and Ioversol, the iodinated CT/MRI contrast media APIs that were at the center of the 2022 global diagnostic imaging supply crisis (when Bayer's Leipzig flood disrupted Iopromide supply for months, deferring tens of thousands of CT scans globally). A company known for ABS plastic, EV battery cathodes, and Korean tires is quietly one of the upstream suppliers for global agricultural pest control and hospital diagnostic imaging — two supply chains with no obvious connection to each other or to batteries.
American Hospital Association ↗Chokepoint2020
LG Chem controls approximately 20–25% of global medical-grade NBR latex supply through two facilities: 280,000 tonnes/year at Yeosu, South Korea, and 200,000 tonnes/year at Pengerang, Malaysia (joint venture with Petronas Chemicals) — 480,000 tonnes combined. The Pengerang plant is physically co-located with Malaysia's glove manufacturing corridor, positioning LG Chem as the embedded upstream supplier for Top Glove, Hartalega, Kossan, and Supermax simultaneously. A disruption to either LG Chem plant — fire, earthquake, feedstock outage, or Korean export restriction — would immediately constrain the Malaysian manufacturers who supply 67.5% of US medical glove imports. There is no other NBL supplier at comparable scale within the same geographic corridor.
New Straits Times ↗Origin2022
LG Chem traces to Lucky Chemical Industrial Corporation, founded 1947 to produce consumer goods (Lucky cream, toothpaste) — the same company whose GoldStar electronics division became LG Electronics. The petrochemicals business was established in the 1970s and formalized as LG Chem in 1999 after Korea's post-1997 IMF crisis restructuring. The most consequential transformation: in December 2020, LG Chem spun off its battery division as LG Energy Solution (LGES), Korea's largest-ever IPO at $10.8B raised. LG Chem retained ~79% of LGES while simultaneously pivoting its remaining business toward advanced battery materials (cathode active materials for LGES and competitors), life sciences (including a $571M acquisition of Cambridge, MA oncology biotech AVEO in 2023), and specialty chemicals — an unusual repositioning from commodity refiner toward drug developer.
Al Jazeera ↗