Formosa Plastics Corporation
Profile
Formosa Plastics Corporation was founded in 1954 in Taiwan. It manufactures plastics, and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The company first attracted global attention when it was caught dumping 3,000 tons of toxic mercury-laden waste in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, that originated at a PVC plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. In 2012, the company became infamous again when it unsuccessfully sued Ben-Jei Tsuang, a professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering in National Chun Hsing University, who published a paper linking high cancer rates in Mailiao, Taiwan, to toxic dioxin and heavy metals air pollution from the Six Naphtha Cracking plant.
PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) resins, high density polyethylene, tairylan acrylic fiber, acrylic acid and ester, carbon fiber, caustic soda, PVC modifier, calcium carbonate.
Violations
| TOP 5 OFFENSE GROUPS (GROUPS DEFINED) | PENALTY TOTAL | NUMBER OF RECORDS |
|---|---|---|
| environment-related offenses | $24,569,802 | 48 |
| competition-related offenses | $5,000,000 | 1 |
| safety-related offenses | $1,201,668 | 40 |
(October 24, 2023)
Stories
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- Proposed Formosa, Louisiana petrochemical complex financially unviable by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) (2021)
- Formosa Plastics Group: A Serial Offender of Environmental and Human Rights by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Earthworks (2021)
- In the Wake of Formosa Plastics: A Report from the Reaching For Just Transition Seminar Series by Tim Schütz (2022)
Activism
Global Hunger Strike: Demand Justice From Formosa Platics for Affected Communities in Vietnam
International Monitor Formosa Alliance | October 31, 2023
Diane Wilson, a fourth generation fisherwoman of the has been fighting Formosa’s plastic pollution in Point Comfort, Texas for 35 years... On October 31, 2023 at 2:00 pm (CT) Diane will lead a global hunger strike against Formosa Plastics, her fourth hunger strike. She hopes to bring justice to the Vietnamese fisherman.
Taiwan: Protesters Travel to Taipei for Formosa Plastics AGM
Patrick Chen | Taiwan Plus | May 30, 2023
Formosa Plastics Group is one of the world’s biggest plastic manufacturers. But activists from the U.S. and Vietnam have long called out the Taiwanese company's human and environmental abuses. Those activists were at the company's AGM on Monday to demand justice and compensation.
USA: 60,000 activists tell JPMorgan Chase: Denounce, divest and defund Formosa Plastics’ toxic and racist petrochemical complex
Friends of the Earth | May 19, 2023
Almost 60,000 activists signed a petition from RISE St. James, Friends of the Earth, Earthworks and a coalition of environmental and social justice organizations telling JPMorgan Chase bank not to invest in Formosa Plastics and denounce the company’s proposed Sunshine Project in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
USA: The Race to Stop a Plastics Plant Scores a Crucial Win
Judith Enck & Rebekah Kreshkoff | Scientific American | September 23, 2022
Led by Sharon Lavigne of Rise St. James, a faith-based grassroots organization fighting to reduce pollution in the community, and lawyers at Earthjustice, a national nonprofit environmental law organization, and other community groups led the years long battle. Ultimately, the groups persuaded Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court to cancel 14 air pollution permits granted by the state's Department of Environmental Quality that would have allowed Formosa Plastics to build its proposed petrochemical complex. Petrochemicals are in a slew of products, including plastics.
USA: Bank of America: Defund Formosa Plastics, March 28
Sunflower Alliance | March 23, 2022
Join Extinction Rebellion SF in an action in solidarity with the majority-Black St. James Parish in Louisiana (aka Cancer Alley), where Formosa Plastics is trying to build a massive 14-facility petrochemicals complex — which would double toxic emissions in the community.
USA: Stop the Formosa Plastics Plant
Coalition Against Death Alley | 2021
As part of the fossil fuel industry’s push to increase North American plastic production by 35 percent by 2025(1), Formosa Plastics is planning to build a massive petrochemical industrial complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
USA: 'This is environmental racism’: activists call on Biden to stop new plastics plants in ‘Cancer Alley
Rachel Ramirez | The Guardian | May 17, 2021
On Monday, groups of climate activists protested against a proposed petrochemical complex an hour away from New Orleans, Louisiana, calling on the Biden administration to revoke the plastics company’s federal permit to start construction.
USA: Army Corps Receives More Than 5,500 Letters Demanding It Revoke Formosa Plastics’ Permit
Center for Biological Diversity | February 10, 2021
A campaign by groups opposing Formosa Plastics’ proposed petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, has generated more than 5,500 letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demanding the project’s federal permit be revoked due to environmental justice, wetlands destruction and pollution concerns.
From Louisiana to Taiwan, environmental activists stand up to a major plastics company
Kyle Vass | The World | July 9, 2020
From Southeast Asia to the United States, activists have called attention in recent years to the harmful impact of chemical companies such as Formosa Plastics Corporation, a Taiwanese petrochemical company that operates throughout the world, including the US.
USA: Formosa Plastics’ Pollution of Texas Waterways Hit by Civil Trial, Protests
Center for Biological Diversity | March 25, 2019
Fishermen, community leaders and activists spoke out against Formosa Plastics’ pollution of Texas waterways today as a federal civil trial of the company began here. During a kayak tour of waterways surrounding Formosa’s Point Comfort plastics plant on Saturday and a courthouse press conference, the company was criticized for environmental injustices here and around the world.
Fishermen Again Protest in Central Vietnam Over 2016 Toxic Spill Payout
Radio Free Asia | January 24, 2018
About 100 mostly fishermen from central Vietnam’s Quang Binh Province have held three days of protests over what they say is inadequate compensation for lost livelihoods caused by a toxic waste spill that occurred along the country’s central coast in April 2016, a priest from the village told RFA.
Thousands of Vietnamese protest at Formosa Steel plant in Ha Tinh
Radio Free Asia | Refworld | October 3, 2016
Thousands of demonstrators converged on a Taiwanese steel factory in Vietnam's central province of Ha Tinh on Sunday to press claims over a major toxic spill in April that killed tons of fish and devastated the local economy.
International:
USA:
- 350 New Orleans
- A Community Voice
- Alliance for Affordable Energy
- Center for Biological Diversity
- Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
- Climate Reality New Orleans
- Coalition Against Death Alley
- Earthjustice
- Earthworks
- Extinction Rebellion (XR) San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
- Friends of the Earth
- Healthy Gulf
- Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA)
- Justice and Beyond
- Louisiana Bucket Brigade
- Louisiana League of Conscious Voters
- New Orleans Office Sierra Club
- Poor People's Campaign
- RISE St. James
- San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper
- SouthWings
- Stop Formosa Plastics
- Sunrise Movement, New Orleans
- Texas Injured Workers
Taiwan:
- Environmental Rights Foundation (ERF)
- Covenants Watch
- Justice for Formosa Victims
- Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Other:
& Lawsuits
Vietnam charges activist who headed petition drives in coastal Ha Tinh province
Radio Free Asia | August 24, 2023
An activist who has organized numerous petition drives in coastal Ha Tinh province has been arrested under Vietnam’s Article 331, the statute commonly used by authorities to silence those speaking out for human rights.
USA: Chemicals maker Formosa reaches 'icebreaker' settlement in price-fixing lawsuit
Mike Scarcella | Reuters | August 15, 2023
The U.S. subsidiary of Formosa Plastics Corp (1301.TW) has agreed to pay $7.5 million and to cooperate with plaintiffs to settle an antitrust lawsuit alleging the company and others curbed the supply of a widely used chemical in a scheme to inflate prices.
Vietnamese activist who protested toxic spill freed after 5 years
Justice for Formosa Victims | January 22, 2022
Police arrested Nguyen Van Oai and dozens of others in January 2017 during a crackdown on people who demonstrated against the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group. The company owned a steel mill that discharged toxic chemicals into the ocean, devastating more than a hundred miles of coastline in four central provinces of Vietnam.
USA: How many burial sites are on the land where Formosa Plastics plans to build?
Wesley Muller | Louisiana Illuminator | July 20, 2020
Formosa plans to build on former sugarcane plantations near the Mississippi River, and Rise St. James says that on those 2,400 acres, there are as many as seven gravesites for Black people who died while enslaved.
USA: Deparment of Environmental Quality analysis for $9.4B Formosa facility's permits included 'obsolete data,' lawsuit claims
David J. Mitchell | The Advocate | March 9, 2020
State regulators relied on nearly decade-old air pollution data to support their conclusion that Formosa Plastics' $9.4 billion chemical complex proposed along the Mississippi River won't pose disproportionate cancer risks to its largely minority neighbors, a new legal petition says.
USA: Louisiana Environmental Activists Charged With "Terrorizing" for Nonviolent Stunt Targeting Plastics Giant
Alleen Brown | The Intercept | June 25, 2020
The accusations against the activists, Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, stem from a seemingly innocuous activist stunt carried out in December, the day after a festival designed to draw attention to the environmental misdeeds of Formosa Plastics.
Formosa Plastics lawsuit (re marine pollution in Vietnam, filed in Taiwan)
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre | June 11, 2019
Nearly 8,000 Vietnamese fisherfolk filed a lawsuit in Taiwan against Formosa Plastics Group over a marine disaster caused by toxic industrial waste discharged by a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics, which resulted in massive devastation to the Vietnamese fish population and interfered with the fisherfolk’s livelihoods. Formosa Plastic’s subsidiary has admitted responsibility. After Vietnamese courts dismissed their claims for compensation, the fisherfolk sought relief in Taiwanese courts. The Taiwanese courts rejected the case for lack of jurisdiction.
Vietnamese Environmental Activist’s Sentence Upheld on Appeal
Radio Free Asia | April 24, 2018
An appeals court in Vietnam’s central Nghe An province today upheld a 14-year prison term handed in February to environmental activist Hoang Duc Binh... He was arrested on May 15, 2017, by police officers who dragged him from a car more than a year after organizing protests over the government’s response to a waste spill the year before by a Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant.
Formosa Unit Offers $500 Million for Causing Toxic Disaster in Vietnam
VOA | June 30, 2016
One of the biggest environmental disasters to hit Vietnam was caused by a unit of a Taiwanese conglomerate leaking toxic waste into the sea, the Hanoi government said Thursday, ending months of mystery and rare public outrage.
Environmental Impacts
Vietnam ministry proposes ending stricter oversight of Formosa steel plant
Radio Free Asia | July 11, 2022
A Vietnamese government agency is proposing an end to a heightened level of oversight of a Taiwanese-owned steel plant responsible for the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster more than five years ago, despite ongoing concerns among local residents.
Formosa begins monitoring its plastic pollution under consent decree
Mark Rosenberg | Victoria Advocate | November 13, 2021
On Thursday afternoon, Seadrift environmental activist Diane Wilson rummaged in the mud along the banks of Cox Creek in Point Comfort and dug up a handful of dirt sprinkled with small plastic pellets.
Army Corps Orders Environmental Review of Proposed Formosa Plastics Plant in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’
Sharon Kelly | Desmog | August 18, 2021
The Formosa Sunshine Project in St. James Parish, Louisiana, will undergo a full formal environmental review, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced in a memorandum issued today and posted on Twitter.
Court dispute over proposed St. James Parish plastics plant takes another turn
David Mitchell | Houma Today | March 16, 2021
A three-judge state appellate panel found on Monday that an East Baton Rouge Parish judge "abused her discretion" when she directed state regulators to reevaluate critical air permits for a Formosa Plastics complex in St. James Parish even before hearing the merits of the case.
Formosa Plant May Still Be Releasing Plastic Pollution in Texas After $50M Settlement, Activists Find
Julie Dermansky | EcoWatch | January 21, 2020
After Wilson and the waterkeeper successfully sued Formosa in 2017, the company agreed to no longer release even one of the tiny plastic pellets known as nurdles into the region’s waterways. The group of volunteers had assembled that day to check whether the plant was still discharging these raw materials of plastics manufacturing.
Formosa Plastics Settles Texas Pollution Case for $50 Million, No More Plastic Releases
Center for Biological Diversity | October 15, 2019
Formosa Plastics today settled a Clean Water Act lawsuit brought by a former shrimper and San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper challenging its extensive plastic pollution of waterways around its Point Comfort, Texas plant.
Former Formosa worker finds plastic pellets in bay
Sarah Sneath | Victoria Advocate | July 3, 2019
Ronnie Hamrick dumped debris from a 17-ounce disposable cup onto a concrete slab at the marina off Main Street.
Taiwan-Owned Steel Factory Caused Toxic Spill, Vietnam Says
Richard Paddock | New York Times | June 30, 2016
Mai Tien Dung, minister chairman of the government office, said the government was seeking $500 million in compensation from the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation for the chemical spill, which killed marine life and poisoned people along 120 miles of coastline in central Vietnam.
USA: Formosa Plastics Corp., Texas, and Formosa Plastics Corp., Louisiana, will spend more than $10 million on pollution controls to address air, water, and hazardous waste violations at two petrochemical plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La.
U.S. Department of Justice | September 29, 2009
The companies also have agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2.8 million to resolve violations under the Clean Air Act (CAA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA).
Human Rights, Justice, and Toxic Waste in Cambodia
Human Rights Watch | May 1, 1999
Kaohsiung County's Department of Environmental Protection learned of the unauthorized shipment to Cambodia on December 2 and launched an investigation of Formosa for breaches of Taiwan's Waste Disposal Act. The multibillion-dollar conglomerate was fined twelve times for breaches of the law in this case, fines that totaled about U.S.$48,000.
PERI Pollution Indexes
Based on United States Environmental Protection Agency data ranking the top 100 worst polluters.
& Relations
USA: Formosa Plastics Fined $2.9 Million for Endangering Public, Workers in Texas
Center for Biological Diversity | September 14, 2021
Formosa Plastics Group has agreed to pay $2.85 million in federal fines for injuring its workers and endangering public health during a series of explosions, fires and toxic chemical releases from its Point Comfort, Texas, petrochemical plant.
Taiwan: Formosa Chemicals workers protest amid regulatory battle between company, local government
Reuters | October 15, 2016
About 5,000 Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corp workers, their families and supporters staged a protest on Saturday, demanding the Changhua county government allow FCF’s factory in the area to resume production.
Taiwan: People Injured in Worker’s Protest
Phillip Charlier | Taiwan English News | October 6, 2016
Sixty people, including police and reporters were injured during a protest in Changhua County when protesters clashed with police over the closing down of a chemical plant. Workers at the Formosa Plastics Group factory are facing unemployment after the Changhua County Environmental Protection Agency refused to renew the plant’s operating license.
USA: Formosa Plastics Vinyl Chloride Explosion
U.S. Chemical Safety Board | April 23, 2004
On April 23, 2004, five workers were fatally injured and two others were seriously injured when an explosion occurred in a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) production unit at Formosa Plastics in Illiopolis, Illinois, east of Springfield.
Financials
Click here for the latest data.
Political Influence
Open Secrets - Tracks corporate lobbying of US politicians.
OpenSecrets.org Profile of Formosa Plastics
USA: The vinyl lobby has poured millions of dollars over the years into convincing lawmakers that PVC plastic is safe and sustainable
Schuyler Mitchell | The Intercept | February 18, 2023
The Vinyl Institute has long been a powerful force in Washington, D.C., but its dealings are rarely scrutinized. Founded in 1982, the group describes itself as “the voice for the PVC/vinyl industry” and represents vinyl, vinyl chloride monomer, and vinyl additive manufacturers, with an industry valuation of $54 billion. Its roster of members includes four petrochemical giants with disturbing safety records: Formosa Plastics, Westlake, Shintech Inc., and OxyVinyls, an affiliate of Occidental Petroleum’s OxyChem subsidiary.
Taiwan: Formosa Plastics Head Lin Chen-jung Resigns in Bribery Scandal
Taiwan Business Topics | August 10, 2015
Formosa Plastics Corp.’s president Lin Chen-jung resigned on July 27 in the wake of a bribery scandal that caused another 24 executives at the firm to be fired and subject to criminal investigation. The allegations span seven years and involve kickbacks paid by suppliers.
Import & Export Data
ImportYeti - Shipping Tracking Tool - Bill of ladings are public information that are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.
- ImportYeti Profile of Formosa Plastics
& Evasion
Taiwan's Formosa Plastics scion wishes to retrieve, donate hidden assets
George Liao | Taiwan News | July 26, 2020
The NT$600 billion family assets stuck in foreign countries have also led to the exposure of the tax evasion tactics practiced by the Formosa Plastics Group.
The Undiscovered Asian Offshore Tax Haven
Common Wealth Magazine | March 8, 2018
The “Paradise Papers” database, obtained by German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung (literally South German newspaper), consists of more than 13.4 million electronic documents from the customer files from Bermuda-headquartered legal firm Appleby and Singapore-based trust and corporate services provider Asiaciti Trust. There are 1,005 Taiwanese individual and corporate customers in those records, with the family of the late Formosa Plastics Group founder Wang Yung-ching well represented.
Vietnamese steel unit of Taiwan’s Formosa under scrutiny over systematic tax violations
Tuoi Tre News | May 26, 2016
The steel unit of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group in the north-central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh has been placed under close scrutiny from anti-transfer pricing and tax evasion agencies, following a number of repeated tax violations.
USA: Despite court ruling, Formosa plans to build Louisiana plastics plant
Valerie Volcovici | Reuters | September 15, 2022
Formosa Plastics Group still intends to build and operate a massive plastic and petrochemical plant proposed for Louisiana, the company said on Thursday, despite a judge's decision to revoke its state air permits.
USA: Army Corps pulls permit on Formosa project
Rick Mullin | C&EN | November 21, 2020
The US Army Corps of Engineers suspended a permit for the construction of Formosa Plastics’ $9.4 billion complex in St. James Parish, Louisiana, earlier this month, claiming that the Corps had eliminated from evaluation five alternative sites for the plant in nearby Ascension Parish ....
USA: For massive new plants, Formosa wants OK to double amount of chemicals released into St. James Parish air
David J. Mitchell | The Advocate | July 8, 2019
Under new air permits proposed for Formosa’s $9.4 billion plastics complex in northern St. James Parish, the planned operation could emit enough new toxic chemicals to nearly double what already is released into the rural parish’s air.
USA: Formosa Investing $9.4B In Louisiana Manufacturing Complex
Business Facilities | April 24, 2018
Formosa Petrochemical Corp. has selected Louisiana’s St. James Parish for a new $9.4 billion chemical manufacturing complex. The company has purchased a 2,400-acre site along the west bank of the Mississippi River, just downriver from the Sunshine Bridge, where in two phases it will build a complex....
Vietnam: Formosa factory restart favors foreign over local interests
David Hutt | Asia Times | April 10, 2017
Vietnam is poised to permit the Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Corp. steel plant to restart trial operations a year after the facility dumped toxic waste into the sea that polluted more than 200 kilometers of Vietnamese coastline spanning four provinces.
Procurement
Formosa Plastics contracts with the U.S. Federal Government (via USA Spending)