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UPDATE 1-Taiwan Formosa stops No.3 naphtha unit for repairs

Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:35am EDT

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SEOUL, March 13 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp (6505.TW) shut its No.3 naphtha unit late on Thursday for a one to two week-maintenance, industry sources said on Friday.

The repairs were possible as Formosa restarted its No.1 naphtha cracker early on Thursday, they said. [ID:nSEO38494]

The region's largest ethylene producer resumed the No. 1 cracker, but operation rates were not immediately confirmed as market sources said it had been producing off-spec products as of late Thursday evening.

The restart came after an explosion earlier in the month at the 700,000 tonnes per year (tpy) unit, leaving one worker dead and its control panel destroyed.

Due to the explosion, Formosa had to delay the maintenance at the 1.2 million tpy No.3 unit, after having postponed it once already to build up ethylene stocks.

Formosa's No.2 unit, with capacity of 900,000 tpy, is running at full capacity, sources said. (Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)



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