OCI Vice Chairman Lee named to head OCI Holdings

OCI Co. Vice Chairman Lee Woo-hyun [Courtesy of OCI]

OCI Co. Vice Chairman Lee Woo-hyun has been named chairman of OCI Holdings Co. effective next month, marking the transition to a holding company and a full-fledged leadership structure under Lee, the third-generation of the company’s founding family.

OCI said the company’s board of directors Tuesday voted to appoint Lee as chairman of OCI Holdings which is due to be launched on May 2.

Lee is the grandson of OCI founder and the late Chairman Lee Hoe-rim and the eldest son of the late Chairman Lee Soo-young. He joined OCI, formerly Oriental Chemical Industries, in 2005 as executive vice president responsible for strategic planning and was promoted to president and chief executive officer in 2013 and vice chairman in 2019.

During his tenure at OCI, Lee is credited with turning around the company’s core business, shifting it to solar power from coal chemicals. As the head of the holding company, Lee is expected to focus on expanding investment in subsidiaries and securing new growth engines.

OCI’s valuation has been centered on polysilicon for photovoltaics, which accounts for about 22 percent of the company’s total sales, leaving other potentially high-growth chemical businesses untapped.

OCI’s transition into a holding company is a strategy to enhance the group’s capabilities by separating investment and business operation, while allowing the chemical business to be re-valued as a standalone entity.

The new operating company, OCI, will foster semiconductor and battery materials as new growth engines. Its semiconductor business will expand supply of polysilicon for the chip industry to strengthen its position as a materials company. Currently, polysilicon for semiconductors is produced at its Gunsan plant, which has an annual capacity of 4,000 tons. OCI plans to increase the capacity by 2,500 tons in the third quarter and plans to further scale up to 10,000 tons.

OCI is also accelerating its efforts in the battery materials business by establishing a high softening point pitch (HSPP) joint venture with POSCO Future M Co., with plans to begin mass production in the second half of this year.

With this growth strategy, Lee aims to double sales of OCI Holdings by 2027 versus last year and increase the sales of OCI by more than 60 percent.

OCI reported 203.56 billion won in operating profit and 719.55 billion won in sales for the first quarter of this year. This is an increase of 80.4 percent and 29 percent on-year, respectively. Net income was up 59.1 percent to 213.39 billion won, according to preliminary figures.