Formosa Chemicals & Fibre

Grade summary

Formosa was among the bottom four in the previous ranking and has slipped even further this year, sharing the ranking’s lowest total score of four points with Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical. Granted, Formosa does not produce or use any…

Formosa Chemicals produces/uses no highly hazardous substances. However, much about the company’s product portfolio is unknown due to the its large production that takes place outside of the EU and US.

Please note that there is no available data for the 91% of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. Lower EU/US production means higher uncertainty with regard to the total production of hazardous chemicals, which will have a negative impact on the company’s score in this category.

Formosa has a method in place to screen and assess the sustainability of its products, but does not include the intrinsic hazards of ingredients in the screening process. Nor does it exclude substances with toxic properties from its new products. Formosa does not actively market safer alternatives on its own website or on ChemSec Marketplace. The company has no true circular product, process or innovation. Formosa does not use biobased resources. Nor does it source and treat recycled materials in a sustainable way, which is one of the key elements of a circular economy. Formosa is not actively reducing the hazardous waste it generates.

The Taiwan company does not produce only sustainable products. Nor does it have a phase-out strategy for hazardous substances that go beyond regulatory compliance. It does not share chemical safety information on its website and lacks a credible code of conduct standard. Formosa did not respond to ChemSec’s attempts to communicate around its ChemScore ranking. Nor does it share any information about what kind of chemicals it produces in regions with low regulatory demands for transparency (e.g. Asia). Formosa does not have a circular economy program, thus lacking objective and measurable circular economy targets.