Two major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday said they plan to spend a total of US$88 million on the group’s new ethylene plant in Louisiana.
The investment from Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維) and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) is to fund an ongoing expansion plan for the group’s US unit, FG Inc, company filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Delaware-based FG Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), operates FG LA LLC in Louisiana, which is building an ethylene cracker.
FG LA, which has paid-in capital of US$120 million, plans to raise US$100 million to cover the construction and design costs of the Louisiana project, which is undergoing an environmental assessment.
Through a capital injection of US$66 million and US$22 million respectively, Formosa Chemicals is to take a 30 percent stake and Nan Ya is to take a 10 percent stake in FG LA, while Formosa Petrochemical would hold 57 percent.
Formosa Taffeta Co (福懋興業), the conglomerate’s arm that operates its textile business, would own the remaining 3 percent stake in FG LA with an investment of US$6.6 million, the group said.
The group would not consider raising more money in the near term, an official told a news conference yesterday, adding that the Louisiana plan is expected to pass the environmental assessment next year at the earliest.
FG LA has acquired 321.15 hectares for US$34.65 million to build the new facility, a company statement said last month.
Formosa Petrochemical chairman Chen Bao-lang (陳寶郎) said that the Louisiana plant is scheduled to begin construction in 2020 and start production in 2022, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported earlier this year.
The cracker is to be capable of producing 2.4 million tonnes of ethylene per year after the first phase of construction is completed in 2024, newspapers said.
The group is planning to build more plants in the state to produce other petrochemicals, such as propane dehydrogenation and ethylene glycol, eyeing abundant shale oil there.
Total investment in Louisiana is expected to be about US$9.4 billion, Formosa Petrochemicals said.
DAMAGE REPORT: Global central banks are assessing war-driven inflation risks as the law of unintended consequences careens around the world, spiking oil prices Central banks from Washington to London and from Jakarta to Taipei are about to make their first assessments of economic damage after more than two weeks of conflict between the US and Iran. Decisions this week encompassing every member of the G7 and eight of the world’s 10 most-traded currency jurisdictions are likely to confirm to investors that the specter of a new inflation shock is already worrying enough to prompt heightened caution. The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to do exactly what everyone anticipated weeks ahead of its March 17-18 policy gathering: hold rates steady. The narrative surrounding that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) share of the global foundry market rose to almost 70 percent last year amid booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), market information advisory firm TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Thursday. The contract chipmaker posted US$122.54 billion in revenue, up 36.1 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 69.9 percent of the global market, TrendForce said. Its share was up from 64.4 percent in 2024, it said. TSMC’s closest rival, Samsung Electronics, was a distant second, posting US$12.63 billion in sales, down 3.9 percent from a year earlier, for a 7.2 percent share of the global market. In the
At a massive shipyard in North Vancouver, Canadian workers grind metal beams for a powerful new icebreaker crucial to cementing the country’s presence in the increasingly contested arctic. Icebreakers are specialized, expensive vessels able to navigate in the frozen far north. And “this is the crown jewel,” said Eddie Schehr, vice president of production at the Seaspan shipyard. For Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who heads to Norway next Friday to observe arctic defense drills involving troops from 14 NATO states, Canada’s extreme north has emerged as a strategic priority. “Canada is and forever will be an Arctic nation,” he said ahead of
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
RSS