The Taipei Times reported yesterday that Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics is mulling the construction of an ethylene facility in Louisiana. The news came one day after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal visited Formosa’s corporate office in Taipei. The company already has a PVC plant on the northern side of Baton Rouge, which it purchased in 1981. It is more good news for Louisiana’s chemical industry — last month Axiall Corp. revealed it had selected the Bayou State as the home for a proposed ethylene cracker and derivatives plant.
Formosa, which today announced its highest capital spending program in five years, asked regulators in November for permission to expand its operations in Point Comfort, Texas. If approved, the company will invest $2 billion to build an ethane cracker unit at the facility, which sits about 124 miles southwest of Houston.
