Cairo & Dubai - LG Chem, a Korea-based company principally engaged in the manufacture of petrochemical materials, said it has been signed up by the UAE-based Metito as the sole supplier of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes for the upcoming seawater desalination plant with a 300,000-tonne capacity that the global water treatment company is building in Port Said in Egypt, Trade Arabia reported. Once completed, it will the country's largest desalination plant which can provide fresh water to about two million people a day, according to the company statement. LG Chem is scheduled to supply RO membranes from the second half of this year, it stated. The Korean group is stepping up its drive to lead the global water treatment market after winning Egypt's largest project to turn sea water into fresh water. Last year, it won an order from a plant in Oman with 250,000-ton capacity. These two contracts have brought LG Chem closer to the global market leadership, remarked Cheoldong Jeong, the president of IT&E Materials Company at LG Chem. Salt concentration and water temperature in the Red Sea area including El Galalah are the highest in the world, requiring RO membranes to satisfy difficult conditions, stated Jeong. However, LG Chem's RO membranes are 25 per cent superior to competitors in terms of filtered water quality. They also save much energy, he pointed out. LG Chem has earlier supplied its products to Coca Cola, Panasonic and other world renowned companies in the industrial RO membrane market, raising its global competitiveness. It also has expanded its customer base to various industrial fields at home and abroad. The company has also provided its products to Kepco in Korea, Shoaiba power plant in Saudi Arabia, Petrobras, a Brazilian petroleum corporation, and the waste water treatment plant of the city of Scottsdale in Arizona, USA. "We will provide our global customers with differentiated values by utilizing our worldwide sales and technical support network of more than 16 countries," noted Jeong. "We will also take the initiative in the global market leadership with bold and proactive investments," he added.
