CPC Corp to scale down annual capacity of planned ethylene plant by 40%

30-Mar-07

Faced with objections from the local resients, CPC Corp., Taiwan’s state-owned oil refiner, has scaled down the annual capacity of a planned ethylene plant by 40% to 600,000 metric tons. CPC will complete the project in 2012, one year later than planned, after residents in southern Kaohsiung county opposed building a 1 mln tpa facility. CPC needs the plant to compete with Formosa Petrochemical Corp., which has newer facilities. Formosa will open its third naphtha cracker in western Taiwan's Mailiao next month, boosting its annual ethylene capacity by 1.2 million tons to 2.94 million. CPC's proposed project, in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung county, will replace the company's existing 230,000 tpa ethylene plant (The No. 3 naphtha cracker), which CPC plans to decommission when the new facility is ready. When the new plant is online, CPC will be able to produce 1.45 million tons of ethylene a year.The change in size means CPC doesn't need additional land, as the no. 3 naphtha cracker's site is enough, he said.