Taipei, Nov. 18, 2008 (CENS)--Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) has obtained the endorsement of Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Tan Dung in spending some US$15 billion to build a sprawling petrochemical complex in Central Vietnam, according to a Vietnamese press report.

The report pointed out that the government of Ha Tinh Province, site of the project, has agreed to provide 1,000 hectares of land inside the Vung Ang Industrial Park to FPG. With annual capacity of 15 million metric tons of petrochemical products, the complex is scheduled for ground breaking in 2010.

FPG also plans to build a mega steel plant at cost of US$17 billion in Ha Tinh Province in two stages, with the ultimate annual capacity set at 15 million metric tons.

The FPG petrochemical project will come on the heels of the US$3.8 billion joint-venture petrochemical project between Vietnam`s state-run Peterovietnam and a leading Thai cement firm in southern Vietnam, which broke ground in September this year. The project can meet 65% of Vietnam`s domestic need for PE (polyethylene) and PP (polypropylene).

An FPG executive noted that the group`s petrochemical complex in Vietnam will be adjacent to its mega steel plant, consisting of an oil refinery capable of refining 10 million metric tons of crude oil annually, a naphtha cracker, and intermediate petrochemical plants. Its scale will be less than the group`s petrochemical complex in Mailiao offshore industrial zone in Taiwan and that in Texas in the U.S.

The Vietnamese facility, said the executive, is designed to supply the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market. The project will not conflict with the group`s plan to build a mega petrochemical complex in Ningbo of China`s Zhejiang Province, according to him.

(by Philip Liu)