A spokesman of Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp., KY Lin said that in 2020, the company would cut gasoline exports by roughly a half as demand being battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Monthly average volume is predicted to slump to 100,000 tonnes/month, from 2019’s average level of 200,000 tonnes/month. Refinery throughput will be kept at around 80% of nameplate capacity this month, unchanged from June.
Lin elaborated that the company would not want to bother with the struggle of keeping the excess cargoes to export amid the weak demand overseas. However, demand has picked up inside Taiwan last month, he added.
The company’s term talks have also been delayed due to negative gasoline margins to crude. Its most recent year-long contract already expired in March and recently, Formosa sold a total of four cargoes for June to July loading.
Now, it is in talks to sell about 30,000 tonnes/month of gasoline through a contract for August-December period.
