Industrial conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) has resumed production at some units of its petrochemical complex in Yunlin County, which were shut down by a power failure earlier yesterday.
FPG said it expected all affected units to come back online later in the day after it completed safety inspections on these sites, according to a statement released yesterday.
The incident occurred when Tropical Storm Talim was approaching Taiwan and causing heavy rain, but the news of the shutdown did not impact the share prices of the group’s four core companies.
The Yunlin petrochemical complex in Mailiao Township (麥寮), comprising the offshore Mailiao and Haifong industrial compounds, houses an oil refinery with annual capacity of 25 million tonnes of crude oil and three naphtha crackers, which produce 2.94 million tonnes of ethylene per year.
The complex also includes other petrochemical plants, heavy machinery plants, a co-generation power plant and the Mailiao Industrial Harbor.
The group said in the statement that “some plants in the Mailiao compound and all factories in the Haifong compound” had been shut down after a power outage that occurred at about 11:55am.
An investigation into the cause of the outagefound it was caused by malfunctions of the double busbar circuit system at the petrochemical complex’s public utility area.
A total of 54 out of the complex’s 66 units were shut down, but the group said most of these units were expected to be restarted after separating the failed circuit and repairing the public utility system, according to the statement.
The group did not disclose the potential damage from the temporary shutdown to these units operated by its core members — Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖).
Shares of Formosa Plastics Corp, the group’s flagship company, rose 0.88 percent to NT$80.1 and Nan Ya Plastics, the nation’s largest plastics maker, increased 1.42 percent to NT$57.3 yesterday.
Formosa Petrochemical, the nation’s second-largest refiner, moved up 1.09 percent to NT$83.7, while Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, which produces aromatics and styrenics, advanced 1.26 percent to NT$80.2.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last