State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that its lubricant blending plant in Vietnam’s Dong Nai Province is scheduled to begin production by the end of next year, as it expands overseas in line with the government’s New Southbound Policy.
The company plans to invest a total of NT$1.79 billion (US$60.55 million) to build the Vietnamese plant and 15 oil storage tanks, CPC chairman Tai Chein (戴謙) said in a statement.
The facility is to be operated by MAXIHUB Co Ltd (越南宏越), a joint venture founded by CPC, Unishine Chemical Corp (和勝倉儲) and Excel Chemical Corp (合興石化), according to the statement.
CPC has a 40 percent stake in MAXIHUB, while the two other private companies each hold 30 percent.
The Vietnamese plant is expected to have an annual capacity of 32,000 kiloliters of lubricants and solvents, CPC said.
The Vietnamese market has great potential and the project was undertaken in accordance with the government’s policy aimed at exploring opportunities in Southeast Asian markets, Tai said.
The expansion also marks the company’s second “southbound” investment in Vietnam after CPC in 1994 established a joint venture, Dai Hai Petro Corp (越南台海石油), to distribute liquefied petroleum gas in north Vietnam, the company said.
Apart from Vietnam, the company is seeking business opportunities in Indonesia and plans to relocate the nation’s fifth naphtha cracker to that country after closing the cracker in Kaohsiung’s Nanzih District (楠梓) at the end of 2015.
CPC has been trying to sell the facility to foreign buyers for the past two years.
The company also plans to invest in a new petrochemical plant in East Java through collaborations with Pertamina, an Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas supplier, according to a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
The new plant would be capable of producing 500,000 tonnes of ethylene and 270,000 tonnes of propylene per year, the report said.
In related news, local petrochemical firms have expressed interest in expanding their presence in India’s growing market, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said.
Several Taiwanese companies are considering teaming up with Japanese businesses to build plants in the Mundra special economic zone, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said last month.
The size of India’s petrochemical industry is forecast to reach US$400 billion by 2025, TAITRA data showed.
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