Taiwan’s Formosa shut PE units for maintenance; delayed restart at No. 3 cracker
On the other hand, the producer postponed the restart date at the No. 3 steam cracker to February from the initial schedule of early January citing negative margins.
Formosa Petrochemical Corporation shut two of its PE lines in Mailiao, Taiwan this January for routine maintenance, market sources reported. The shutdown curtails spot availability from the producer amid rising upstream costs and squeezed downstream margins.
The affected unit includes the 260,000 tons/year LLDPE line, which was taken offline on 22 January 2024 for approximately 30 days. The 320,000 ton/year HDPE unit was shut on 19 January and is scheduled to come online at the beginning of February.
On the other hand, the producer postponed the restart date at the No. 3 steam cracker to February from the initial schedule of early January citing negative margins. The cracker has an annual output of 1.2 million tons/year of ethylene, 600,000 tons/year of propylene and 180,000 tons/year of butadiene.