Taking Aim at European Market

SK Group plans to double its sales in Europe to 2 tln won by 2010

SK Group has kicked off its campaign to expand its operations in Europe in such areas as oil products trading, display business, IT products and business, and steel, chemical and fashion.
The third largest conglomerate in the country has decided to double its sales of products and services in Europe to 2 trillion won in 2010 from last year in a group's recent strategic meeting.
The group said its affiliates including SK Energy, SK telecom, SKC, and SK Chemical have decided to expand their plants in the region and strengthen their marketing campaigns. The outline of the strategy is based on Chairman Chey Tae-won's statement early this year that the group should have a better strategy than others in the country to continue to keep itself on the path of growth or else it will perish. The chairman said the group should have "Global Survival Plan"to sustain its growth.
SK officials said the group's sales target in Europe for this year has been set at 1.8 trillion won, up from 1.3 trillion won last year, selling such products as oil, commodities, products turned out by SK plants in Europe and products sold by its trading affiliate. They said the group would not have problems meeting its target of 2 trillion won in sales of products and services by 2010.
The group's sales to Europe amounted to 750 billion won in 2002, 900 billion won in 2004 and 1.5 trillion won in 2006, growing 20 percent annually in recent years.
SK Energy will begin tapping the 4th oil block in North Sea for oil for the first time in Europe and the company expects to commercially produce oil from the second half of next year. The company expects its sales in Europe this year would reach 600 billion won from the sale of lube oil, and crude oil. SK Chemical projects its sales to amount to 200 billion won this year including the sales of the products produced by its subsidiary in Poland, SK Eurochem.
The group wants to turn Europe into its domestic market like it did with China and the results would soon show up as SKC and SK Telecom step up their operations to expand sales in Europe. SK Corp. at the same time, is expanding overseas presence to all parts of the Asian region, centering around China with a mid- and long-term goal of repositioning itself as a major in the Asian-Pacific region.
As SK Corp. Chairman & CEO, Chey Tae-won, has repeatedly urged his staff to "push ahead with overseas projects without fear of a failure,"SK Corp. is striving to crack the global market in search for yielding tangible fruits arising from the implementation of its active overseas projects. Chairman Chey's drive for overseas market exploration has led to exports worth more than $10 billion for the second successive year last year, accounting for half of the 2006 sales.
SK Corp. does not rest on its laurels in the overseas business category. Early this year, the company has carried out reorganization, calling for the revamping of the overseas business division.
Major features of the reorganization include the establishment of SKI (SK International), a new corporation responsible for control over overseas business and other steps designed to create business opportunities and build up infrastructure. nw

A night view of SK Oil Refinery in Ulsan