Chemical company LG Chem has pledged capital expenditure of over 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) this year, up some 60 percent on-year, to enhance research and development capacity.

The move, coupled with its constant increase in overseas contracts, is part of a bid to prepare for the arrival of the “fourth industrial revolution.”

LG Chem is a Korean manufacturer of basic materials, automotive batteries, information technology and electronics materials. 

In July, LG Chem vowed 2.6 trillion won in R&D -- 16 percent of its total capital as of end-2017 -- to build facilities by June 2021 in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province. The company will produce 800,000 tons of ethylene through naphtha cracking and 800,000 tons of polyolefin with “high added value.”

Also, through a separate investment of 200 billion won, LG Chem aims to build a production facility for new materials that are “thermal insulating, ultra-light and highly intense” in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province.

This comes in light of LG Chem’s pledge to increase R&D investment by at least 10 percent. It spent a record-high 900 billion won in R&D in 2017.

The capital expenditure pledge was revised up from 3.8 trillion won thanks to the early execution of investment in automotive battery production, according to Jung Ho-young, chief financial officer of LG Chem. The car battery sector saw a record-high order backlog worth 60 trillion won as of end-June.