2 February 2018
DETAILS
Far Eastern New Century Corporation
(“FENC”) has successfully bid
around NT$ 1 billion for
a PET plant in West Virginia and
a research center in Ohio in the U.S.
on 1 February 2018.
The annual capacity of the PET plant
is around 360,000 tons on a 424 acres site.
It is a strategic action and will be
FENC’s first production site in the U.S.
The aforesaid PET plant in Apple Grove
was previous owned by M&G,
which has filed for bankruptcy protection,
and the closing shall be consummated
subject to the bankruptcy court approval
on 2 February 2018 (Taipei time).
FENC is the top 5 PET producer globally
in terms of capacity and
was the first PET producer in Asia.
Currently the Company has PET production sites
in Taiwan and China, with its new Vietnam PET plant
to start operation in June 2018.
With expansion in the U.S., the Company considered
several factors:
1.Regarding sales,
the U.S. is one of the major FENC’s PET markets
and an American based plant will be close
to the Company’s clients.
2.Second, the U.S. has been increasing
the non-tariff barriers to trade for importing
to the American market
(for example, U.S. producers continuously launched
anti-dumping case against Taiwanese PET makers
in recent years).
3. Regarding production, a complete supply chain
of the upstream feedstock has been built
in the U.S. and tax reform bills
have reduced corporate tax rates.
4. This, in conjunction with cheaper energy cost,
and the appreciation of the Taiwan Dollar against U.S. Dollar
mean that now is an excellent time to invest in the U.S.
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
