China Man-Made to set up second EG plant in Taiwan

Dec 10, 2003 Ι Industry In-Focus Ι General Items Ι By Ben, CENS
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Taipei, Dec. 10, 2003 (CENS)--China Man-Made Fiber Corporation (CMFC), one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of ethylene glycol (EG), yesterday inked an accord with Britain-based Shell Chemicals Co. to purchase patented production procedures owned by the latter.

CMFC is the first domestic EG manufacturer to strike a technical cooperation agreement with the British producer. The company will use the patented technology to facilitate the establishment of its second EG plant, which will cost NT$6 billion (US$176.47 million at US$1:NT$34). The new plant will be set up in the Tashe Industrial Zone, Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan.

Wang Kuei-hsien, CMFC president, said the new plant will start mass production in September 2006. At that time, CMFC will become Taiwan's second largest manufacturer of EG. After launching mass production, the new plant will be able to pump NT$1 billion (US$29.41 million) up to NT$1.5 billion (US$44.11 million) into CMFC's overall profits per year.

CMFC's Kaohsiung plant currently is capable of rolling out 60,000 metric tons of EG and 70,000 metric tons of ethane oxide (EO) per year.

Wang said the new plant will replace the old one which has run for 27 years. In the new plant, the company will adopt energy-saving production skill and the most advanced high-efficiency catalyst to reduce material consumption.

The new plant will have an annual production capacity of 400,00 metric tons of EG and EO, meeting the requirement of economic scale to keep cost down.

Wang said his company has spent a few months in seeking technical transfer from advanced chemical firms worldwide, including Shell Chemicals and Dow Chemicals. With a cautious evaluation, the company finally decided to adopt the production procedure offered by Shell Chemicals because of its lower water and power consumption.

CMFC said it has obtained the promise of the state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp. to fully provide materials, mainly ethylene, to facilitate the production of its new plant.
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