Plastic bag supply stabilizes after initial price hike: Official

Taipei, April 23 (CNA) The supply of plastic bags is now stable nationwide after the war in the Middle East briefly caused prices to spike and the government asked petrochemical companies to increase production of key materials, an official said Thursday.

The government announced on March 31 that it would ask state-run CPC Corp., Taiwan and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (FPCC) to boost the production of ethylene, a petroleum derivative and a precursor material for plastic bags.

CPC responded by providing FPCC with 5,000 metric tons of raw material to produce polyethylene (PE) pellets, Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧), director-general of the Industrial Development Administration, told a weekly Cabinet news conference.

As of April 21, FPCC had contracted 10 manufacturers to produce plastic bags and provided them with 1,417 metric tons of PE pellets, Chiou said.

The 5,000 metric tons of raw material are enough to produce 1.25 billion 23-by-30-centimeter plastic bags, sufficient to meet nationwide demand, he added.

Major retailers, including Show Ba Department Store, PX Mart, and Zhen Yu Hardware, have reported adequate supplies of plastic bags and scrapped plans to raise prices, Chiou said.

Meanwhile, other retailers said their inventories could last between 15 days and one month, he added.

Regarding supply in shopping districts and night markets, Chiou said the Ministry of Economic Affairs has met the initial wave of demand and is now responding to further requests from businesses.

Looking ahead, the ministry aims to assist other agencies in addressing plastic bag shortages that may arise in areas such as medical equipment and agricultural product packaging, he said.

In terms of fuel supply, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying at a Cabinet meeting that oil reserves remain at "safe levels," while natural gas supplies are sufficient through June.

In addition, electricity, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas prices will remain unchanged for households and small businesses through May, he said.

According to Cho, since the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East, CPC has kept oil prices in Taiwan lower than those in neighboring Asian countries by absorbing NT$11.47 billion (US$363.3 million) in increased costs.