Formosa unclear about restart of No. 1 cracker, and schedule of maintenance at other crackers

24-May-11

A decision is awaited by Formosa Petrochemical Corp. on schedule of start up of its No. 1 naphtha cracker and whether it will carry out maintenance at a second unit, originally planned for September, as per Bloomberg. The No 1 cracker was halted following a fire at a pipe in the Mailiao oil refining and petrochemicals complex. It has annual capacity of 700,000 tons and accounts for about 24% of Formosa’s ethylene output capacity. It remains unclear whether Formosa Petrochemical will shut the No. 3 ethylene plant for scheduled work in H2-11. Maintenance was planned to last 40 days to 45 days. The fire also forced shutdown of Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. to shut its No. 1 aromatics plant. The plant contributes 18% of the company’s capacity for aromatics. The facility will resume output on May 16.