KUALA LUMPUR—The Lotte Ube Synthetic Rubber (LUSR) butadiene rubber plant in Malaysia was hit by a major fire on Feb. 24, former stakeholder Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd. reported.
Efforts to contain the blaze at the plant located in Tanjung Langsat, Johor, state had continued overnight, according to local press reports.
LUSR was started as a joint venture between Lotte Chemical Corp. (40 percent), Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Sdn. Bhd. (10 percent), Ube Industries Ltd (40 percent) and Mitsubishi Corp. (10 percent).
Lotte Chemical Titan, however, divested its 10-percent stake in LUSR in December 2021, the butadiene feedstock supplier pointed out in its Feb. 24 statement about the fire.
At the time of its start-up in 2015, Ube Industries listed LUSR as its fourth butadiene rubber production facility, alongside units in Japan (126,000 metric tons per year), Thailand (72,000 tons per year), China (72,000 tons per year).