Formosa Petrochemical considering building $9.4B production complex in Louisiana

Greater Baton Rouge Business Report ^ | SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 | STEVE SANOSKI

[robowombat]

Formosa Petrochemical considering building $9.4B production complex in Louisiana

STEVE SANOSKI SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

Taiwan-based Formosa Petrochemical Corp. is studying the feasibility of building a $9.4 billion industrial complex in St. James Parish to produce ethylene and other chemical products, company officials and Gov. Bobby Jindal announced this afternoon.

A final investment decision is expected in mid-2016. If Formosa decides the investment makes financial sense, it would move forward with construction on the first phase of the project in late 2016, with hiring to begin in 2018. The project would create 1,200 new direct jobs paying an average annual salary of $84,500, plus benefits, Louisiana Economic Development estimates.

The state is offering Formosa an incentive package that includes a $12 million performance-based grant to offset infrastructure costs, with the grant to be paid in four equal annual installments beginning in 2018.

Formosa also would receive workforce development assistance via LED’s FastStart program, and it would benefit from Louisiana’s Quality Jobs and Industrial Tax Exemption programs. The former program provides a cash rebate of up to 6% of the company’s payroll for up to a decade for new jobs created, while the latter offers a full abatement of local property taxes for up to a decade on new capital investments.

The $9.4 billion project would be built in two phases on the west bank of the Mississippi River near the Gramercy bridge and would represent one of the largest single-site ethylene production complexes in the world.

Formosa operates Taiwan’s only privately owned oil refinery and naphtha cracking complex, serving global industrial activities that include oil refining, petrochemicals, plastic raw materials, secondary processing of plastics, electronic materials, machinery and transportation. Formosa has had a presence in Louisiana since 1981, with three plastics manufacturing locations in East Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes.

[WayneS]

One more time: Formosa OWNED JM Eagle at the time the bad pipe was being manufactured.

[thackney]

Not the same being the crook you claim.

[WayneS]

I see. The business geniuses at Formosa just innocently owned a crooked company.

If you want to shill for Indonesian mobsters then be my guest.

[catfish1957]

Louisiana economy is taking lots of hits from the fall in oil prices

Flooding the market almost already saturated with ethylene is going to help matters? Especially a foreign one, with past questionable business practices? I hope it gets shot down.

[thackney]

Have a great day, God Bless

[thackney]

For those interested, Formosa Plastics Group is a Taiwanese company, not Indonesian. Internationally they have over 100,000 employees. It started in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1954 and remains headquartered in Taiwan.

The USA division (Formosa Plastics) has 2,400 employees with fatalities in New Jersey, Louisiana and Texas.

http://www.fpcusa.com/about.html

[NorthMountain]

has 2,400 employees with fatalities in New Jersey, Louisiana and Texas.

Perhaps they need to review their industrial health and safety practices ...

:"}

[thackney]

Making more cheaper manufacturing feedstocks is good for the US economy. More jobs, less cost of products.

Are you really complaining that another ethane cracker is being built in the US Gulf Coast?

[catfish1957]

There are several other planned crackers by “US” companies who tend to have better SHE records. I have first hand comments from others (overheard at trade shows) about what these guys were all about in the ‘90’s. Retired, but was industry for 30 years, and hate to see foreign circumventers get a leg up on our people.

[thackney]

I don’t see them getting a leg up.

I see them coming in on the tail end of billions of dollars in many other plants farther along.

I’ll accept without debate your concern about the company. But do you really see it a problem for our concerns of yet another ethane cracker being built?

[thackney]

what a typo

Thanks!

[catfish1957]

I’d rather not give specifics in a public post. I will Freep mail you with details. La., should avoid Formosa like the plague.

[thackney]

I want to understand this comment which did not seem to pertain to the specific company.

Flooding the market almost already saturated with ethylene is going to help matters?

[NorthMountain]

I have had the autocorrect feature in Micro$haft Word do far worse to me in a briefing I was preparing for a very highly placed customer ...

[thackney]

Yeah, I’ve learned to not trust spell check for anything really important.

It is really has to be correct, I let my wife read it. She is great at finding my mistakes. (she used to be the last check for their corporation SEC filings, annual report, etc)