Formosa restarts Texas cracker post-turnaround: sources

Formosa Plastics USA has restarted its 900,000 mt/year cracker at its Texas complex after completing a turnaround, sources familiar with company operations confirmed April 12.

The planned work at the Point Comfort unit began in early to mid-March.

The company launched the turnaround after restarting its 1.2 million mt/year cracker, the largest at the site, and a smaller 750,000 mt/year unit after sustained subfreezing temperatures forced widespread petrochemical shutdowns along the US Gulf Coast in mid-February.

The smallest cracker had already been shut for much of 2020, and its restart prompted Formosa to move ahead with the planned turnaround on the middle-sized facility.

The restart, completed the week of April 5, was expected to allow Nan Ya Plastics, Formosa's sister company, to restart its 800,000 mt/year monoethylene glycol unit at the Point Comfort site. Nan Ya's smaller 370,000 mt/year MEG plant was expected to remain shut until mid-summer, according to sources familiar with its operations.

Neither company responded to a request for comment.