Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑) and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) yesterday said an order from the Yunlin County Government last week to close six petrochemical plants in the county after a series of fires would lead to heavy financial losses.
Nan Ya said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that closing five of its plants would generate losses of NT$8.4 million (US$291,400) per day, while FPC said it would suffer losses of NT$26 million per day.
The remarks came after FPC yesterday sent representatives to the county government, after it ordered the shutdown from June 1 over safety concerns.
FPC called on the county government to postpone the shutdown, saying not all of the plants had safety issues.
The firms sought a compromise or leniency with the county government, saying that the suspension of so many plants at the same time could deal a heavy blow to the petrochemical sector.
However, the county government said that postponing the shutdown was not possible because public safety was more important than economic development.
After the order, Nan Ya’s shares plunged 5.5 percent to close at NT$77.3 in Taipei trading yesterday, while FPC’s shares dipped 3.54 percent to NT$109.
In an unprecedented move, FPC was ordered on Friday to shut down its 12-hectare vinyl chloride (VCM) plant at the Mailiao (麥寮) petrochemical complex on June 1.
The plant produces polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other plastic materials.
The county government also told Nan Ya to shut down its 50-hectare Haifeng (海豐) factory compound on the same date.
The Haifeng compound houses five production lines that churn out a number of key textile materials and petrochemical intermediaries, including 1,4 butylene glycol (BG), ethylene glycol (EG) and bisphenol A (BPA).
The plants in question should remain closed until the county government and the Council of Labor Affairs decide that safety measures have been adequately improved, Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said on Friday.
The county government issued the unusually harsh penalty to FPC after two fires at the group’s Mailiao complex on May 12 and May 18.
FPC executives were caught off-guard by the county government’s decision and said the punitive move would deal a serious blow to the downstream petrochemical industry, with the textile sector taking the brunt of the impact.
FPC’s VCM plant produces 800,000 tonnes of petrochemical materials a year. The plant has been closed since the May 12 fire. Its shutdown will affect Nan Ya’s operations because VCM is an important ingredient in the production of PVC and many other plastic materials.
Nan Ya is the world’s fourth-largest EG producer, with its Mailiao and Haifeng factories churning out 180 tonnes of the chemical annually.
Some sections of a Nan Ya plant in the Mailiao complex have suspended production since the May 12 fire pending safety inspections, but the Haifeng compound’s shutdown would affect global EG supply and deal a drastic blow to the downstream synthetic fiber industry, market analysts said.
Nan Ya’s monthly sales could drop by between NT$8 billion and NT$10 billion because of the Haifeng complex closure, they said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS