Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) has shut down one of its five factories at the Haifeng (海豐) compound in Mailiao (麥寮), Yunlin County, for a safety inspection and will close the other four factories by June 20, according to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) it signed with the Yunlin County Government.
The Haifeng compound houses five Nan Ya factories that produce several key textile materials and petrochemical intermediaries, such as 1,4 butylene glycol (BG), ethylene glycol (EG) and bisphenol-A (BPA). The company was under an order by the county government issued on May 27 to close these factories following fires on May 12 and May 18.
Nan Ya chairman Wu Chin-jen (吳欽仁) signed the MOU with Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) on Sunday, the county government said in a statement, after the company suspended its production at an iso-nonyl alcohol factory that same day.
Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
Under the MOU, Nan Ya — the world’s fourth-largest EG producer and one of the core members of the industrial conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) — has promised to shut down the BG factory by June 12, close two plants that produce BPA and EG by June 15 and suspend another EG production line by June 20.
If Nan Ya fails to close these four factories as scheduled, the company will face a fine of up to NT$300,000 (US$10,500) a day by the county government. Moreover, the company will also face water and electricity cuts to the Haifeng compound and the county government will cancel the firm’s registrations for its factories, the MOU states.
The content of the MOU was published on the county government’s Web site on Sunday after Su visited the group’s Mailiao petrochemical complex to see if Nan Ya was following the county government’s order to suspend factory operations as scheduled.
Su asked the company to follow the highest safety standard procedures during the shutdown process, while denying rumors that she had recently met Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong (王文淵) privately to discuss the shutdowns, the county government’s statement said.
Apart from the five Nan Ya factories, one plant run by Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑) was also ordered by the county government to suspend operation because of the recent incidents.
The group last week said closing the six factories would lead to daily losses of NT$34.4 million, with Nan Ya suffering losses of NT$26 million a day and NT$8.4 million for FPC.
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