Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corporation closed its 300,000 mty styrene monomer production plant in central Taiwan following a fire on 12 August 2012. The plant, which is part of the company's Mailiao petrochemical complex in Yunlin County, was shutdown to conduct safety checks. The closure of the plant is expected to bring down Formosa Chemicals' revenue in August to some extent, according to Hong Fu-yuan.

The company also said though the fire was put out within half an hour after it had started. The Mailiao complex in Taiwan has three styrene monomer plants with annual capacity of 1.2 mts combined.