Taiwan petrochemical plants not affected by 6.8-magnitude quake

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Taiwan’s petrochemical plants were operating normally on Monday, largely unaffected by the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the southeastern region of the island on 18 September, based on ICIS’ checks.

Its major petrochemical complexes are in Toufen in the northwest; Mailiao, Ta-sheh in Kaohsiung city and Linyuan in the south.

Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC) and USI’s ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) plants in Mailiao and Kaohsiung, respectively, as well as Nanya Plastics’ bisphenol-A (BPA) plant in Mailiao were all in operation, according to market sources.

Also not affected were FPC’s caustic soda and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production facilities in Kaohsiung and Mailiao and China General Plastics Corp’s PVC production facilities in Kaohsiung and Toufen, market sources said.

China Petrochemical Development Corp’s (CPDC) 200,00 tonnes/year caprolactam plant in Kaohsiung was also not affected by the quake.

The earthquake occurred at around 14:44 Taiwan time (06:44 GMT) near Taitung County on 18 September at a depth of seven kilometres, according to Taiwan’s Central Bureau.

Source: Taiwan Central Weather Bureau

One person has died while 79 others were injured following the quake, according to news agency Focus Taiwan.

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center had issued a warning for Taiwan after the quake but later lifted the alert.

Buildings shook briefly in the capital Taipei, and aftershocks have continued to jolt the island, the latest being a 5.9-magnitude earthquake which hit 69 kilometres southwest of Hualien County at around 10:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Monday.

Additional reporting by Helen Lee and Jonathan Chou