Formosa to restart Mailiao aromatics unit after blast

Taiwan's private-sector Formosa Chemical & Fibres (FCFC) is poised to resume operations at its No.3 aromatics unit in Mailiao over the next few days, after an explosion on 7 April forced a shutdown.

The unit can produce up to 870,000 t/yr of paraxylene (PX) and 510,000 t/yr of benzene.

The April explosion hit the upstream reforming facilities at the site, which are not scheduled to restart until early July. The PX/benzene unit was not damaged during the explosion, enabling production to be restarted ahead of the reformer.

FCFC has been actively purchasing isomer-grade mixed xylenes (MX) for June and July delivery as a replacement feedstock for the No.3 aromatics unit, although volume details could not be confirmed.

The company has also scaled back purchases of benzene for its downstream phenol and styrene monomer facilities ahead of the restart of the Mailiao aromatics unit. FCFC has bought 30,000-40,000t of benzene to sustain production at its downstream units since No.3 shutdown in early April. Formosa typically bought around 6,000-9,000 t/month of benzene before the blast.