ULSAN — Ulsan's petrochemical industrial complex is moving to embed artificial intelligence into traditional manufacturing processes in what the city calls an AI transformation, or AX. Ulsan will invest a total of 29 billion won to build a specialized AI model based on data from flagship plants and spread the results across the complex.
The Ulsan Information & Industry Promotion Agency, together with the Ulsan Plant Managers Council, held the 46th Chemical Network Forum and the Ulsan M.AX Caravan AI Technology Exchange Meeting on the 26th at the agency's main auditorium. About 60 people attended, including members of the Ulsan MINI Alliance committee, officials from the open AX consultative body, representatives of plant managers councils from six industrial complexes and executives of AI supplier companies.
The event was designed to strengthen cooperation between companies operating in the petrochemical complex and AI solution providers, and to identify and demonstrate AX models that can be applied in practice at local manufacturing sites. M.AX combines manufacturing and AI transformation, reflecting an aim to upgrade the region's core industries by applying AI across entire production processes rather than pursuing simple automation.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy currently operates the MINI Alliance, or M.AX Innovation Network in Industrial complexes, as the implementation body for the industrial complex AX division in 10 regions nationwide. They include Ulsan Mipo, Banwol-Sihwa, Changwon in Gyeongnam, Myeongji-Noksan, Cheonan in Chungnam, Gunsan in Jeonbuk, Gwangju Advanced Science and Technology, Yeosu and Daebul in Jeonnam, and Hupyeong in Gangwon.
Ulsan is carrying out a 29 billion won project to build a petrochemical AX demonstration complex over 40 months, from September 2025 to December 2028. The core of the project is to develop a vertical AI model tailored to the petrochemical sector using production data from flagship plants, and to establish leading plants and demonstration infrastructure.
The city also plans to spread demonstration results across the entire complex through an AX Alliance made up of divisions for future strategy planning, technology innovation and diffusion.
Four AI companies took part in the exchange meeting to share intelligent technologies tailored to petrochemicals. Lee Chung-heon, an executive director at MI Cube Solution, presented the MICUBE.AI platform, which integrates production and equipment data, along with a development path toward autonomous factories based on digital twins.
Yoo Bo-seon, chief technology officer at Ineeji, presented process optimization using explainable AI, known as XAI, and human-in-the-loop methods, as well as a demonstration case at SK Energy. Han A-ram, chief executive of ABH, outlined a data strategy for physical AI that combines physical reality with AI, while Lim Kang-min, chief executive of ATG, introduced an approach to autonomous plant operations based on experience in predictive diagnostics for rotating equipment.
"Korea has the potential to leap to the world's highest level in industrial AX, and Ulsan, the country's industrial capital, will be at its center," said Lee Dong-gu, chairman of the committee and an honorary researcher at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology and a visiting professor at the University of Ulsan. "I hope the Ulsan petrochemical AX demonstration complex project bears fruit and becomes a catalyst that accelerates AI transformation across petrochemical and non-ferrous metal companies."
