Six petrochemical companies indicted for price-fixing

Prosecutors have indicted six petrochemical companies and more than forty executives for allegedly fixing prices on products valued at over 16 trillion won ($11.75 billion), officials announced on Thursday. The targeted companies include LG Chem, Aekyung Chemical, OCI, Lotte Fine Chemical, PKC, and Unid. They are accused of conspiring together over several years to raise prices for eight specific petrochemical products, namely PVC, plasticizers, caustic soda, and hydrochloric acid.

In addition to the six major companies, prosecutors also indicted 43 current and former employees of these firms, including OCI Vice Chairman and CEO Kim Yu-shin and former PKC CEO Jang Young-soo. The investigation specifically focused on price-fixing activities that took place between November 2021 and April of this year, involving the eight products whose total value exceeded 16.39 trillion won.

Key figures such as a former head of PKC's sales division, identified as Bae, and a former head of LG Chem's business division, named Hwang, have been referred to trial while currently in detention. The suspects are alleged to have engaged in price-fixing schemes for the eight petrochemical products, which are primarily made from naphtha and are widely used in the production of synthetic plastics like PVC.