Taiwan's CPC Corp. received 20,000 tons of ethylene on Thursday, imported from mainland China. This is the highest monthly import of ethylene by Taiwan's state-run oil company.
China's state-run petrochemical company, China Petroleum & Chemical Co. (CPCC) supplied the ethylene to CPC Corp.
A month earlier too, CPC Corp. imported nearly 20,000 tons of ethylene from CPCC to make for the shortage of its domestic supply.
The shortage of ethylene in Taiwan was caused partly due to the suspension of CPC's No. 5 naphtha cracking plant in Kaohsiung for maintenance. The suspension of operations by the Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) at its naphtha cracking plants located in the Mailiao Industrial Zone of Yunlin County owing to frequent fire incidents, also added to the shortage of ethylene.
The August ethylene imports failed to meet the domestic demand, and prompted the CPC to import another 20,000 tons this month.
The No. 5 naphtha cracker of CPC has a monthly ethylene production capacity of 40,000 tons and therefore, suspension of the plant along with the suspension of some plants by FPG led to a reduced domestic supply of ethylene, used as a raw material for manufacture of polyester fabrics.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India