ChinaPlas '06: Formosa mulls Ningbo PVC expansion

28 April 2006 10:00  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC), the Taiwanese plastics major, could double the capacity of its China polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Ningbo by 2008 if market conditions are favourable, a company source said on Thursday.

Output from the 300,000 tonne/year plant could be increased to 400,000-600,000 tonne/year by 2008.

Speaking on the sidelines of ChinaPlas 2006 exhibition, the source said that currently Taiwan exports around 30,000 tonne/month of PVC  to China. "However, China's imports of PVC have been steadily falling, due to new production start-ups in China by carbide producers who enjoy better economics than ethylene-based players," he said.

Other factors which could stall FPC's proposed expansion were the sharp fluctuations seen in domestic prices in China  in recent months, and the wide gap between domestic and import prices, he said.

"If domestic prices begin to climb to international price levels, the expansion would be viable," he added. 

The source said there were no plans to back-integrate the Ningbo project. Vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) feedstock for the existing PVC plant is being imported from the company's plant in Taiwan.

The ChinaPlast exhibition started on Wednesday and ends on Saturday.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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