FPG drafts an astronomical investment plan in Taoyuan

Taipei, Nov. 28, 2003 (CENS)--Representatives from Taoyuan County government, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) and other sectors yesterday co-held a presentation concerning a NT$1.26 trillion (US$37 billion at US$1:NT$34) investment plan to build an open port and other infrastructural industry facilities in the northern county.

Deputy County Magistrate C.J. Liao said the astronomical-investment plan is raised by Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), Taiwan's largest manufacturing conglomerate. However, executives from FPG denied the statement and said they were invited to take part in the presentation and their company alone can hardly afford the huge investment capital, which is almost double the investment for its sixth naphtha-cracker plant.

The investment plan requires a total 4,560 hectares of reclaimed land, with 1,050 hectares for harbor area and the remaining portion for an infrastructural industrial park, a hi-tech park and a residence area. The port sites and the harbor area are projected on the coastal area of the county-governed Kuanyin and Hsinwu Hsiangs, where FPG originally planned to set up its sixth naphtha-cracker plant some 10 years ago.

In the infrastructural industrial park, there will a steel mill capable of producing 10 million metric tons a year, a 4.8 million kilowatt power plant and metal-processing factories with total capacity of five million metric tons of products a year.

The project estimates businesses on the industrial parks will be able to create at least 18,000 jobs.

The harbor is designed to be five times the load capacity size of Mailiao harbor, the mouth of the Mailiao Industrial Park, where the FPG's sixth naphtha-cracker plant is running now. Chairman Y.C. Wang of FPG once said an ideal harbor should allow in cargo ships with draft weight of at least 250,000 metric tons when he was asked about his plan to invest in a harbor in Taiwan.

The port, requiring investment capital of around NT$60 billion (US$1.7 billion), is planned to have 33 wharves and deal with up to 102 million metric tons of cargo by the year 2114.

Although Taoyuan County Magistrate Chu Li-luan said his government will fully support this massive investment plan, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) disapproved the harbor plan, saying that the investment plan will be only a waste of money, because northern Taiwan already has a Keelung harbor and another one is under construction. MOTC is a regulator of Taiwan's transportation investment plans. Another regulator, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has expressed its support for the investment plan.

Local industry watchers forecast FPG to likely threaten Taiwan Power's and China Steel Corp.'s top spots each in Taiwan's electrical power and steel-making sectors once the plan is realized.