Formosa Petrochemical Corp (
"We will send a team to Guatemala soon to look into the investment environment there," said a Formosa Petrochemical official who declined to be named.
Costs, transportation, government incentives such as subsidies or preferential loans and other conditions will be carefully evaluated by the company before making a final decision, the official said without providing a specific timeframe.
During a visit to Taiwan last month, Oscar Berger, the president of Guatemala, was given a tour of Formosa Petrochemical's Sixth Naphtha Cracker in Yunlin County, accompanied by President Chen Shui-bian (
The Guatemalan government later said that it hoped Formosa Petrochemical would invest US$7.2 billion in building an oil refinery with the capacity to produce 360,000 barrels of oil per day, along with a power station, a port and oil storage facilities, the Formosa official said.
Formosa Petrochemical produces approximately 700,000 barrels of oil per day in Taiwan.
Business risk is also one of the factors to take into account, he said.
For example, San Sun Hat & Cap Co (
Formosa Petrochemical emphasized that its evaluation of the Guatemalan projects was at a preliminary stage.
During a four-nation tour of Latin American allies, Vice President Annette Lu (
Shares of Formosa Petrochemical closed up 0.47 percent to NT$85.4 (US$2.61), outpacing the benchmark TAIEX, which lost 1.01 percent yesterday.
The private-run refiner saw its sales increase last month 17.17 percent from a year ago to NT$61.61 billion. Sales for the first six months of the year rose 14.54 percent from the same period last year to NT$293.85 billion.
Formosa Petrochemical, which is a unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), commands about 30 percent of the domestic gasoline market. It exports about 65 percent of its gasoline for higher profits.
DEJA VU: Echoing the probe into real-estate giant Evergrande Group, the bank is under Beijing police scrutiny after last week, telling investors it is ‘severely insolvent’ Chinese authorities said they recently opened criminal investigations into Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co’s (中植企業) money management business, days after the embattled shadow banking giant revealed a shortfall of US$36.4 billion in its balance sheet. Police in Beijing said in a statement on WeChat that they took “criminal mandatory measures” against multiple suspects, identifying one by their last name, Xie (解). They urged investors to report cases or provide leads to the authorities, including filing complaints online. Xie Zhikun (解直錕), the group’s founder, died in 2021, but several of his relatives are executives at the company. The statement did not elaborate on what
CONSIDERATIONS: The NSTC instructed the park to assist laid-off workers and urge companies to use furlough programs to ease the effects of falling demand Firms in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), which houses major tech companies, reported laying off 496 employees last month amid weakened global demand, Hsinchu Science Park Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) said yesterday. Wang told a news conference that 48 companies in the science park laid off employees last month, including one hard disk supplier which let go 241 employees as part of a plant closure due to falling demand. Other companies reported sporadic layoffs as they adjusted to weakening demand, he said. Wang made the remarks after local media reported the layoffs over the weekend. Although the global economy is struggling with high
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck have promised to solve investment subsidy issues for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Intel Corp, despite the country’s budget woes. Uncertainty over the funding to TSMC and Intel has arisen after a ruling by the German Federal Constitutional Court, which cast doubt over subsidies for construction of local semiconductor chip plants. On Nov. 15, the court ruled that the German government’s decision last year to reallocate 60 billion euros (US$65.74 billion) of unused funding from COVID-19 pandemic support measures to its Climate and Transformation Fund
NEW TREAD: The Taiwanese shoe brand paired with TSMC to turn silicon waste into a circular economy good, following its success making shoes from coffee grounds Ccilu International Inc (馳綠國際), a Taiwan-based footwear brand, has become the first company in the world to turn silicon waste from contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) into eco-friendly shoes. Last year, the global footwear industry saw the first pair of pressure-relief slippers made from recycled silicon waste by Ccilu. The brand continued to unveil follow-up collections, including sports shoes and massage slippers made from the same materials. In an interview with CNA, Ccilu CEO Wilson Hsu (許佳鳴) recalled the company’s innovation of the first pair of slippers made from silicon waste after its silicon waste treatment partner, Semisils Applied Materials
RSS