LG Polymer: What India should know about the company behind Vizag gas leak

The Korean company took over erstwhile Hindustan Polymers in 1997 from its then owner United Breweries Group

LG Polymers, the company behind the deadly styrene gas leak that left many dead and hundreds injured on Thursday, is a subsidiary of LG Chemicals, which in turn is part of South Korea’s LG group. The company’s Vizag plant manufactures plastics and plastic compounds like polystyrene, expandable polystyrene, and enhanced plastic compounds.

LG Chemicals had taken over erstwhile Hindustan Polymers in 1997 to enter this lucrative business in India. Nearly two decades earlier, Hindustan Polymers, a company founded in 1962 by the Shriram group, had been taken over by the United Breweries group in 1978. According to LG Chemicals’ annual report,