Taiwan's Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation may only be able to start its No. 1 and No. 2 styrene monomer plants at Mailiao late November, a company source said late Wednesday, but he noted that this was not confirmed.
The two plants, with a combined capacity of 600,000 mt/year, have been shut since May 12 due to a fire at an LPG pipeline at the Mailiao complex, and are awaiting approval from authorities to be restarted. The restart is also pending the completion of a scheduled one-month turnaround.
Platts reported mid-September that the plants were expected to be restarted in late October or early November, but the source said this was more likely to happen in late November.
The company's 600,000 mt/year No. 3. SM plant at Mailiao was not affected by the fire and is currently running at full capacity, the source added.
