Taiwan's Formosa puts 700,000 tpa cracker off stream due to sluggish demand

06-Jan-09

Coping with the decline in petrochem demand, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (Taiwan) has put off steam its No.1 naphtha cracker (700,000 tpa) less than a month after it restarted its No.3 cracker (1.2 mln tpa) at the same facility. The period for which the cracker will remain shut is not known and will largely rely on the petrochemical demand figures. As of now, its No.2 and No.3 crackers have curtailed runs by 15-20% of full capacity.