Formosa Plastics Corporation

Profile Formosa Plastics Corporation, established over fifty years ago in 1954, is currently capitalized at NT$61,209 million. Our main business area is intermediate raw materials for plastics. Our products include PVC resins, VCM, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, MBS, HDPE, EVA/LDPE and LLDPE. Our annual production capacity for PVC resins is 1,301,000 MT. Not only are we the largest producer in Taiwan, if our US operations are also included, but also our total capacity of 3.17 million MT/Y makes us one of the largest manufacturer of PVC resins in the world. Our annual production capacity for VCM is 1,580,000 MT, the largest in Taiwan. Utilizing the ion exchange membrane process instead of mercury in our caustic soda production, Formosa Plastics Corporation boasts an annual production capacity of 1,600,000 MT. With an annual production of MBS at 19,700 MT and PA at 25,000 MT respectively, annual capacity for these products in total is 44,700 MT. Annual production capacity of HDPE currently stands at 566,000 MT, making us the largest producer in Taiwan. Annual production capacity of EVA/LDPE and LLDPE stand at 240,000 and 264,000 MT respectively.Processed plastic products are developed in coordination with production of HDPE at our Hsinkang complex. Production of shopping bags, roll bags, garbage bags and other products has reached a yearly capacity of 10,000 MT. Our fiber products include acrylic staple fiber and carbon fiber. Our annual capacity 63,000 MT of acrylic fiber makes us Taiwan's largest producer of the product. The carbon precursor needed to produce the 8,750 MT/Y of carbon fiber was developed in house. We are one of the few companies in the world to have developed this product, which has greatly contributed to the development of the high-tech sector in Taiwan. In response to the government's call for the development of high value-added products and precision chemical industries, we also produce specialty chemicals such as Acrylic Acid & Esters, NBA, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), AN, MMA, ECH and MTBE. Annual capacity of Acrylic Acid & Esters stands at 268,000 MT, making us the largest producer in Taiwan. To utilize high purity acrylic acid (HPAA) produced by our acrylic acid and ester plant, we have built a Super Absorbent Polymer plant with an annual production capacity of 40,000 MT in Hsinkang complex. This facility is the only super absorbent polymer production plant in Taiwan. Annual capacity of NBA currently stands at 250,000 MT and mainly supplied to our Acrylic Acid & Esters plant. Annual capacity of AN currently stands at 280,000 MT, making us the largest producer in Taiwan and supplied to our Acrylic Fiber plant and FCFC's ABS plant. Annual capacity of MMA stands at 98,000 MT. Annual capacity of ECH stands at 100,000 MT, making us the largest in Asia and mainly supplied to affiliate Nan Ya Plastics for epoxy production. Annual capacity of MTBE stands at 174,000 MT/Y, mainly supplied to affiliate Formosa Petrochemical as gasoline additives. We also produce 45,000 MT/Y of POM, another product developed using our own technology. Our calcium carbonate products include Taical, U-cal, raw lime and light master batch. We are Taiwan's only producer of calcium carbonate.FPC has established an Engineering & Construction Division, which is in charge of both engineering service and cogeneration plant. Engineering service mainly includes evaluation, configuration, design, inspection and acceptance for the construction, expansion and improvement of the variety process plants of FPC in domestic as well as abroad. Cogeneration plant supplies utilities including power, steam, industrial water, oxygen and nitrogen to the variety process in Jenwu complex of FPC.In accordance with the company's strategy of diversification, an Electronics Department was established. This department has undertaken a special project, which had given us full capability in programming software and hardware for automated design and planning. We have also worked with Fuji Electric of Japan on large-scale dispersed machinery and the design and production of distributed control system (DCS).We are currently pushing ahead with No.6 Naphtha Cracking Project, which includes a total of thirteen plants producing PVC, VCM, C4, Caustic Soda, MMA, ECH, AN, AA/AE, HDPE, EVA/LDPE, LLDPE, Carbon Fiber and NBA. All plants were completed and commenced production. Now, we are pushing the debottlenecking & expansion plan of phase V of No.6 Naphtha Cracking Project. When these plants come online, they will not only add the company's operating revenue, but also help to relieve the national shortage of basic petrochemical raw materials. As the output of the above plants can be further processed into specialty chemicals and engineering plastics, the plants are indispensable to the upgrading of the local plastics, electronics and synthetic fiber industries.Because of the domestic downstream processing producers moving into China and the economic reformation in China opening over ten years, its petrochemical industry has already quickly rolled and demand for the raw material must rely on the import. It will create more opportunities after China joining WTO. However it's very difficult to sell raw material into China from Taiwan due to high tariff in China. In order to fight for China market, we have already actively advanced into China and planned the petrochemical zone in Ningbo China. Now we invest one PVC plant for capacity of 300,000 MT, commenced production in January 2005, one AE plant for capacity of 230,000 MT, commenced production in March 2006, one PP plant for capacity of 450,000 MT, commenced production in April 2008, and one SAP plant for capacity of 30,000 MT, commenced production in March 2008.