MOSCOW (MRC) -- Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) has undertaken a planned shutdown at its No.3 cracker in Mailiao, according to Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in Taiwan informed that, the company started maintenance at the cracker on August 11, 2020. The cracker is expected to remain off-line till end-September, 2020.
Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No. 3 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1.2 million mt/year and propylene production capacity of 600,000 mt/year.
As MRC wrpte previously, Formosa took off-stream its No.2 cracker in Taiwan on 1 June, 2020. No reason for unplanned closure was given. The cracker was idle until 4 June. Located at Mailiao in Taiwan, the No.2 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1.03 million mt/year, propylene production capacity of 515,000 mt/year and butadiene production capacity of 162,000 mt/year.
Formosa, Asia's top naphtha importer, operates three naphtha crackers in Mailiao. These units have a total capacity of 2.93 million tpy of ethylene.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
Formosa Petrochemical is involved primarily in the business of refining crude oil, selling refined petroleum products and producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations. Formosa Petrochemical is also the largest olefins producer in Taiwan and its olefins products are mostly sold to companies within the Formosa Group. Among the company's chemical products are paraxylene (PX), phenyl ethylene, acetone and pure terephthalic acid (PTA). The company"s plastic products include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resins, polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP) and panlite (PC).
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