A loaded Taiwanese oil tanker carrying 58,000 tonnes of naphtha was involved in a collision with a cargo ship late on Tuesday in the Strait of Malacca bordering Malaysia and Indonesia, leaving nine crewmen from the oil vessel missing, a Malaysian maritime official said.
Oil traders said yesterday the Cargill-chartered tanker, Formosaproduct Brick (立善輪), was shipping the naphtha cargo from the United Arab Emirates through the strait between Malaysia and Indonesia to Daesan and Yosu in South Korea.
The origin of the naphtha was likely Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC), with whom US trading firm Cargill Inc has a term contract to lift around 100,000 tonnes for an unspecified period, traders added.
PHOTO: AFP
An official from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said there was no danger of an oil spill from the Liberian-registered tanker with 25 crew, which was on fire hours after the collision with the Ostende Max, a British-registered bulk carrier. Sixteen of the crewmembers were picked up by a passing cargo ship.
A Reuters cameraman near the scene said the fire appeared to have been put out and the tanker did not seem to be listing or at risk of sinking.
Traders said the naphtha was to be supplied to South Korean end users — Honam Petrochemical, LG Chem and Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center (YNCC).
PHOTO: AFP
“The barrels were meant to arrive in South Korea in second-half of August, but I doubt there will be any major impact. Inventory is not that low [in South Korea],” said a Northeast Asian trader. “Additionally, there are still some September cargoes that traders had not sold.”
The Formosaproduct Brick is registered to Formosa Alpine Marine Corp in Liberia, with Formosa Plastics Marine Corp (台塑海運) serving as a technical operator, according to information posted on the Taiwanese firm’s Web site.
The double-hull vessel, a design meant to prevent oil leaks or flooding beyond the outer compartment, was built by Japan’s Universal Shipbuilding Corp in 2001 and delivered to Formosa Plastics Marine in 2005, the Web site data showed.
Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), parent of Formosa Plastics Marine and Formosa Alpine Marine, said yesterday that the incident would not affect operations at its oil-refining unit Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), because they do not own the cargo.
The collision occurred at 10pm in international waters in the Straits of Malacca Straits, the MMEA official said.
“We have towed the tanker to the edge of international shipping lines 18 nautical miles [33km] offshore from Port Dickson [in Malaysia] and alerted all vessels in the area, so there is no disruption or delays to shipping in the Straits,” the official said.
An MMEA spokeswoman later said the cargo ship was empty when it sailed from Port Dickson for Singapore at the time of the collision and the slightly damaged bulk carrier has been directed to return to the west coast Malaysian port for investigations.
There was still no sign of the missing crewmen, she added.
additional reporting by staff writer
FOPLP PLANS? The chipmaker said the budget was for fab construction and manufacturing facilities, but did not comment on reports of talks with Innolux Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) board of directors yesterday approved capital appropriations of US$29.62 billion to install and upgrade the firm’s chip manufacturing process technologies, as well as its advanced and mature packaging technology capacity. The capital expenditure budget would also be for fab construction and installation of manufacturing facilities, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said in a statement. TSMC did not comment on reports that it was in talks with flat-panel display maker Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire an idle plant as it prepares to convert manufacturing equipment into a new chip packaging production line that is to use fan-out
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), yesterday said it has signed an agreement with Innolux Corp (群創) to acquire the flat-panel display maker’s plant in Tainan for NT$17.14 billion (US$530.6 million) amid supply constraints of its advanced packaging capacity constraints. TSMC plans to use the plant, including buildings and manufacturing facilities, for future operations, the world’s biggest foundry service provider said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The chipmaker did not elaborate on whether it would convert the plant into a new panel-level packaging factory, or expand its advanced packaging chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) capacity. The chipmaker "is working whatever it
The world’s biggest steel producer sounded the alarm about a crisis in China that carries the potential to send global shock waves, warning of a deeper industry downturn than major events in 2008 and 2015. Conditions in China are like a “harsh winter” that would be “longer, colder and more difficult to endure than we expected,” China Baowu Steel Group Corp (寶武鋼鐵集團) chairman Hu Wangming (胡望明) told staff at the company’s half-year meeting. For commodities including steel, the warning from Baowu underscores risks to demand and prices, as well as what ArcelorMittal SA, the No. 2 firm in the industry, called an
As monsoon rains were about to break over Pakistan, 14-year-old Shamila and her 13-year-old sister Amina were married off in exchange for money, a decision their parents made to help the family survive the threat of floods. “I was happy to hear I was getting married... I thought my life would become easier,” Shamila said after her wedding to a man twice her age in hope of a more prosperous life. “But I have nothing more, and with the rain, I fear I will have even less, if that is possible.” Pakistan’s high rate of marriages for underage girls had been inching