FCFC to shut Mailiao PTA for five-day turnaround

04 February 2008 02:20  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Taiwan’s Formosa Chemical & Fiber Corp (FCFC) plans to carry out a five-day turnaround at one of its two 500,000 tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) units at Mailiao in the middle of this month, a source with the chemical major said Monday.

“The shutdown is a very minor one; in fact, we’ve had several small shutdowns of a few days here and there in our two Mailiao lines, over the past two to three months,” the source said.

Although the source did not give any reason behind the shutdown, many market observers said that this could more than just for routine maintenance.

“We can all guess that every now and then, these shutdowns would help them manage their inventories and also help maintaining a respectable margin amid current market conditions,” said a trader familiar with FCFC.

Like all PTA producers, FCFC had faced squeezed or no margins since late 2006 due to overcapacity in the industry and tight supply of feedstock paraxylene (PX).

Many PTA producers, including FCFC, had resorted to cutting back operations in order to manage their inventories and limit losses.

FCFC operates a third PTA unit at Ilan, north of Taiwan, with a capacity of 670,000 tonnes/year. Its second Ilan unit of 400,000 tonnes/year is expected to start up in the middle of this year, other company sources said.

By: Salmon Aidan Lee
+65 6780 4359

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