Greater Kaohsiung has served as a hub for the petrochemical industry since the Japanese colonial era.
The city’s local industry employs 35,000 workers and is home to multiple petrochemical parks such as the state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC) Kaohsiung Refinery Plant, its Dalin (大林) Township Refinery Plant, the Dafa Industrial Area, the Linyuan (林園) Petrochemical Area, the Renwu (仁武) Petrochemical Industial Area and the Dashe (大社) Petrochemical Industrial Area.
The beginnings of the municipality’s petrochemical industry can be traced to 1936, when the former Japanese Imperial Navy established a fuel plant in what is now Nanzih District’s (楠梓) Houjin Township (後勁) to refine crude oil and fuel its fleet.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Time
After World War II ended in 1946, the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government took over the plant, expanded on the Japanese-built infrastructure and refashioned it into CPC’s Kaohsiung fuel refinery.
In 1971, the plant expanded to include CPC’s first and second naphtha crackers, prompting other petrochemical giants to also set up facilities near Kaohsiung in Renwu and Dashe districts. Companies that have invested in these areas include the Formosa Plastics Group, Nanya Technology, USI Corp, Asia Polymer Corp, Taita Chemical Co and China Petrochemical Development Corp.
Currently, CPC’s Kaohsiung fuel refinery has 1,700 employees and churns out 200,000 barrels of oil a day.
However, its fifth naphtha cracker is facing an impending relocation and has been trying to boost its production quota to compensate for the period when it will not be operating during the move. The Renda (仁大) Industrial Area and more than 10 companies are to be impacted by the relocation, which could cost 2,500 workers their jobs.
The concentration of the petro-chemical industry in Greater Kaohsiung has prompted the saying: “If anything explodes at CPC’s plant, it would level Kaohsiung.”
However, prior to the pipeline explosions in the city’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Lingya (苓雅) districts late on Thursday night and early on Friday morning, the expression had been said only in jest.
After seeing how a propene leak in a pipeline running underneath the middle of those districts wreaked massive damage, civic groups and academics are beginning to worry about Greater Kaohsiung’s status as a petrochemical hub.
As of 4pm yesterday, 28 people, including four firefighters, have been confirmed dead in the blasts, with two firemen still missing and 302 people reported as injured, according to figures compiled by the Central Disaster Emergency Operation Center.
Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan executive director Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said that the network of pipes carrying petrochemical substances under the city is too dense, adding that some pipelines were even connected to one other.
After four decades in use, the pipes are all outdated, making them akin to dud bombs, Lee said.
Chang Jui-ren (張瑞仁), director of the Professional Geotechnical Engineers Association’s Kaohsiung-Pingtung Office, said the gas companies should have been more worried than the government about leaks depressurizing the flow of gas, adding that no one had a clue about which pipe was malfunctioning.
“How can the public feel safe with these people in charge of the pipelines running underneath them?” Chang asked.
Yang Ping-tsang (楊秉蒼), a professor at Cheng Shiu University’s department of civil engineering, said the problem lay in the nation’s lack of laws governing the oversight of pipelines’ security, so local governments build modern urban cities with no visible pipelines by putting them underground, which means no one knows what state they are in.
Former Kaohsiung Professional Civil Engineers Association president Ou Liang-kui (歐良規) said that despite recent fears, the continued security and transformation Greater Kaohsiung must not exclude the petrochemical industry.
The Greater Kaohsiung City Government’s plan for the “New Asia Bay Area” happens to pass over Chenggong Road, under which run oil and petrochemical pipelines, Ou said.
If anything were to happen to that line, the “cream of the cream” of Greater Kaohsiung may be subject to explosion, Ou said.
Though the petrochemical industry provides for tens of thousands of families, a recent string of safety incidents including the blasts led the director of the city government’s Economic Development Bureau, Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生), to say that while the city welcomes investors, it also hopes they will uphold their social responsibilities.
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final