Formosa Petrochemical primarily involved in the business of refining crude oil, producing and selling olefins (including ethylene, propylene, butadiene and BTX) from its naphtha cracking operations, has shut down unit No 1 naphtha cracker completely today.
Official sources from Formosa, while interacting with Fibre2fashion.com informed that the cracker will remain shut for an indefinite period, depending upon the surge in petrochemical demand. Unit no 2 and 3 with capacity of 2.23 million ton per year, are also currently operating at the rate of 80 to 85 percent only.
The Source further said that if the demand rebounds then the Company will consider restarting unit no 1 and Formosa officials expect that the demand may spring back, by February 2009.
Earlier Formosa delayed to restart its 1.2 million ton per year cracker No 3, the largest of all its units by around two months to December 12, following a routine maintenance because of weak petrochemical buying interest.
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