Formosa Petrochemical to raise run rate at 2.93 mln tpa naphtha cracker

30-Oct-12

Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to raise run rate at its 2.93 mln tpa naphtha cracking complex by 10 percentage points to 90% in three days, as per traders reported in Reuters. This will result in higher demand for naphtha. Run rate was lowered to 80% from 100% in late September as ethylene demand reduced after a fire impacted monoethylene glycol unit operated by its sister company, Nan Ya Plastics Corp. Formosa supplies some of its ethylene feedstock to Nan Ya Plastics. "Although the incident has been resolved, there are no plans yet to restore the operating rates of the cracking complex to full capacity because demand for petrochemicals is slow," said a trader. Formosa is now seeking a minimum of 25,000 tons of open-spec naphtha for H1-December arrival at Mailiao in a tender which is due to be awarded on Tuesday. It recently bought around 60,000-90,000 tons of open-spec naphtha for November delivery but the price details were not known.