Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) said it will join a 400 billion Taiwan dollars ($12.4 billion) project with local firms to build a petrochemical complex in central Taiwan.

The joint project, including an oil refinery and a naphtha cracking plant, is aimed at integrating upstream, middle stream and downstream manufacturers in the local petrochemical industry, a CPC spokeswoman said.
The refiner y is expected to process 300,000 barrels of crude oil every day, while the naphtha cracking plant is expected to produce 1.2 million tonnes of ethylene a year.
"It is a 10-year development project. We expect the project to generate $350 billion in annual output and create about 25,000 new jobs," the spokeswoman said.
The CPC will take a 43 per cent stake in the joint project, to be located in Yunlin, while Far Eastern Group, Chang Chun Group, China Man-Made Fiber, Ho Tung Chemical Corp and Fubon Financial, will hold the remaining 57 per cent.
CPC has joined forces with several private petrochemical firms to set up a $530 million new company, Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology, to carry out the project, the spokeswoman said.
The new company will kick off the project once it obtains approval from the Yunlin County government, she said.