{"id":68670,"date":"2025-11-26T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/?p=68670"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:27:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T03:27:49","slug":"greenpeace-urges-lawmakers-to-stop-cpcs-twd106-2bn-petrochemical-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/68670\/greenpeace-urges-lawmakers-to-stop-cpcs-twd106-2bn-petrochemical-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenpeace Urges Lawmakers to Stop CPC\u2019s TWD106.2bn Petrochemical Expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Taipei, November 26, 2025<\/strong> \u2014 Greenpeace and allied environmental groups today call on lawmakers to reject CPC Corporation\u2019s proposed TWD106.2bn expansion of its 4th Naphtha Cracker (\u201cNC4\u201d), warning that state-owned company\u2019s feasibility is built on inflated financial assumptions and ignores Taiwan\u2019s worsening petrochemical overcapacity.<\/p>\n\n


After cross-checking CPC\u2019s FSR with publicly available industry data [1], Greenpeace identified 3 major risks<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. Taiwan already faces severe ethylene overcapacity<\/strong>, yet CPC plans to triple NC4\u2019s capacity.
    <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Prices and revenue forecasts are significantly inflated<\/strong> \u2013projected ethylene prices are 70% higher than CPC\u2019s historical average.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
      \n
    1. Substantial increase in greenhouse gas emissions would be raised by 930,000 tonnes\/year following the expansion, against Kaohsiung\u2019s emission cut requirements and Taiwan\u2019s net-zero goals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

      Gustav Pan, Plastic Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia Taipei, pointed out: \u201cCPC\u2019s FSR assumes unrealistically high ethylene price and projected revenue that is inconsistent with historical data and projected maximum annual production capacity. Such an inflated forecast appears to conceal financial risk, misleading lawmakers and relevant government agencies and undermining public trust in a state-owned company. Lawmakers should reject this TWD106.2bn investment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n


      CPC\u2019s FSR projects domestic ethylene prices averaging TWD49,845 per tonne between 2030 and 2039. Yet CPC\u2019s own internal financial statements show actual sale prices between 2015 and 2024 averaged TWD29,322 per tonne<\/strong>\u2014meaning the projected price is roughly 70% higher than the historical average.[2]<\/p>\n\n

      Taiwan\u2019s ethylene production fell from 3.3mt in 2022 to 2.6mt in 2024, pushing utilization rates to approximately 65%.<\/strong> Despite falling demand, CPC plans to raise NP4\u2019s output from 350,000 to one million<\/strong> tonnes per year.<\/p>\n\n

      Furthermore, Greenpeace found that CPC\u2019s projected ethylene revenue for 2040\u20132044 is overstated by 170% <\/strong>[3] when compared against the FSR\u2019s own price assumptions and the cracker\u2019s maximum production capacity of one million tonnes per year.[3]<\/p>\n\n

      Pan added, \u201cThe projected revenue for NC4 appears significantly inflated. If the Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan approve this project based on embellished financial forecasts, CPC\u2019s already-strained finances will deteriorate further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      Post-expansion emissions rise sharply, contradicting net-zero goals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

      Greenpeace noted that CPC\u2019s own projections show emissions from the expanded cracker rising to 1.6 million tonnes of CO\u2082 per year<\/strong>, an increase of 930 thousands tonnes<\/strong> compared with today. This would violate Kaohsiung City\u2019s requirement for the Linyuan complex to cut emissions by 680 thousand tonnes<\/strong> by 2030 from 2005 levels, and run directly counter to Taiwan\u2019s net-zero goal.<\/p>\n\n


      Civil groups: Expansion goes against global petrochemical shifts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

      Hsu Po-Jen, Deputy Executive Director of the Environmental Rights Foundation, said that petrochemical industries worldwide\u2014particularly in China, South Korea and Japan\u2014are scaling down production due to long-term overcapacity.<\/p>\n\n

      Hsieh Ho-Ling, Secretary-General of Taiwan Watch Institute, warned that global petrochemical markets have become a \u201ccut-throat red ocean.\u201d He said \u201c Taiwan should instead focus on reducing single-use plastic and building a circular economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      Huang Chia-Ying, Habitat Conservation Officer at The Society of Wilderness, added that \u201cCPC\u2019s expansion would worsen virgin plastic overproduction, depress recycling economics, and exacerbate ecological and waste-management pressures. The project even assumes continued growth in single-use plastics\u2014directly contradicting government reduction policies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      Worker safety cannot be used to justify expansion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

      Greenpeace emphasized that improving worker safety requires proper maintenance, not building new facilities in an oversupplied market. Expanding basic petrochemical capacity does not guarantee stable employment\u2014if anything, it increases long-term career risks for workers as global industries shift toward value-added production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      The coalition urges the CPC to withdraw the proposal, and call on the Economic Committee and legislators from Kaohsiung to closely scrutinize this case from the standpoint of fiscal oversight and sustainable development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

      Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

      [1] ] Greenpeace\u2019s analysis cross-referenced the Petrochemical Industry Yearbook, Formosa Petrochemical\u2019s annual reports, CPC\u2019s internal and statutory budget documents, self-compiled financial statements and audited reports.<\/p>\n\n

      [2] According to CPC\u2019s FSR (page 7-4 and 7-5), projected ethylene prices between 2030 and 2039 average TWD49,845\/tonne. CPC\u2019s 2015\u20132024 actual sale prices averaged TWD29,322\/tonne\u2014around 70% lower.
      [3] Using CPC\u2019s projected 2040\u20132044 ethylene price (page 7-5) multiplied by one million tonnes yields the theoretical annual revenue. CPC\u2019s projected figures in page 7-7 exceed this by 170%, indicating major inconsistencies in revenue forecasting.<\/p>\n\n

      Contact<\/p>\n\n

       Chi Lo, Communications Officer, 0975-238-051, Chi.Lo@greenpeace.org<\/p>\n\n

      Gustav Pan, Plastic Campaigner, (02)2361-2351#248, Gustav.Pan@greenpeace.org
      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Taipei, November 26, 2025 \u2014 Greenpeace and allied environmental groups today call on lawmakers to reject CPC Corporation\u2019s proposed TWD106.2bn expansion of its 4th Naphtha Cracker (\u201cNC4\u201d), warning that state-owned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":68671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"p4-page-type":[],"class_list":["post-68670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-sustainably","category-protect-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68672,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68670\/revisions\/68672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68670"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=68670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}