Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s (台塑石化) chairman Wilfred Wang (王文潮) and president Su Chi-yi (蘇啟邑) stepped down yesterday after another blaze broke out at the oil refiner, the latest in a slew of fires that have damaged the company’s plants or halted production.
Just before 1am yesterday morning, a fire struck Formosa Petrochemical’s plant in Mailiao (麥寮), Yunlin County, and was extinguished two hours later, firefighters said.
Formosa Petrochemical is a subsidiary of the nation’s industrial conglometrate Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑). Yesterday’s fire was the sixth to have struck FPG since the beginning of the year.
Photo: Taipei Times
“We did not solve the problem. I should be responsible for this,” Su told reporters.
Firefighters said propylene leaks from Formosa Petrochemical’s refinery could be the cause of the fire. However, they would launch an investigation to determine the cause.
On Thursday, Wang told a media briefing that the company planned to spend NT$12 billion (US$415.6 million) on replacing old pipes over the next three years to prevent further incidents.
The latest fire reignited dismay among nearby residents about the safety of the plant.
Late on Tuesday, a fire broke out at the FPG complex and was thought to have been caused by gas leaks from the aging pipelines.
After Tuesday’s incident, FPG promised to improve safety and “not to allow similar incidents to happen again.”
In May, two fires hit the FPG complex, causing several of its plants to be shut down last month for safety inspections following orders from the Yunlin County Government.
Earlier this month, two ethylene glycol plants at the facilities that were closed after the May fires were allowed to resume operations.
However, after Tuesday’s fire, the county indefinitely postponed a review of an application from the group to reopen another two factories. The review was previously scheduled for Friday.
The shutdown of the affected factories following the fires in May has caused four major subsidiaries of FPG to suffer massive losses. The four companies’ pre-tax profit for the second quarter fell 25 percent to 50 percent from the first quarter.
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