Taiwan's Formosa Plastics is running its two polypropylene units at reduced operating rates due to a shortage of propylene after a fire at feedstock supplier Formosa Petrochemical Corp.'s Mailiao refinery over the weekend, a company source said Tuesday.
The source said the run rate at Formosa's 400,000 mt/year Linyuan unit in Taiwan had been cut from around 80% to 50-60% after the fire, while the run rate its 450,000 mt/year Ningbo unit in China had been cut from 80% to 40%.
FPC was Monday ordered to keep its No. 1 naphtha-fed steam cracker shut indefinitely after the latest fire Saturday at its Mailiao refinery. The cracker has been shut since a pipeline fire May 12, and was also hit by fire last Tuesday.
The latest fire occurred at a propylene production unit attached to residual fluid catalytic crackers.
The Formosa Plastics source Tuesday said the company still had access to some propylene supplies from Taiwan's CPC but has stopped offering PP.
FPC Monday said it still planned to go ahead with an annual turnaround scheduled for it No. 3 naphtha-fed steam cracker from mid-August.
FPC's No. 1 cracker is able to produce 700,000 mt/year of ethylene and 350,000 mt/year of propylene. The No. 3 cracker is able to produce 1.2 million mt/year of ethylene and 600,000 mt/year of propylene.
The two RFCCs are able to produce 350,000 mt/year of propylene each, while the OCU is able to produce 250,000 mt/year of propylene.
