Despite a letter of intent it signed with Chiayi County Government 14 months ago to build Taiwan's eighth naphtha cracker in Putai (
"Pingtung County is still the first choice for the Eighth Naphtha Cracker Plant (第八輕油裂解廠)," CPC President Pan Wen-yen (潘文炎) as quoted as saying in a Chinese-language report yesterday.
Pan said both the company and its downstream petrochemical plants could not accept the designated site of Putai port in Chiayi County, which was selected on Dec. 5, 1999.
In the report, Pan pointed out that there are too many problems associated with the Chiayi site, saying it is located on vacated salt fields of Taiwan Salt Works in southwestern Taiwan and it is very difficult to transform these scattered tracts of land into a unified industrial complex.
In addition, he said the Putai Port currently can only take in 5,000-ton ships, while the planned industrial complex will need a harbor for 200,000-ton tankers in order to handle the import of crude oil and export of finished products.
He added that for the Putai port to reach that status, the shoreline will have to be extended by at least 12 kilometers into the sea. In that case, it will cost at least NT$27 billion for the building of an industrial harbor at Putai, Pan said.
The Chiayi County's thriving fish farming industry may be another issue that needs reconsideration, according to the CPC president. He said that getting the fish farmers to move to other areas could incur an unbearable cost, but keeping them near the industrial complex could also lead to disputes in the future.
The project, first raised by the group in October 1995, calls for capital investment of NT$600 billion.
Other major participants in the project are more than 10 local chemical manufacturers including the Koo's Group (
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