USI Corporation was established in 1965. Total capital exceeded NT$11.8 billion. Its stocks have been listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange since 1972.
The main business of the company is to manufacture and sell polyethylene resins. Plants are located in the Jen-Wu Petrochemical Zone of Kaohsiung City. The polyethylene we make may be classified into four major categories: Low Density Polyethylene Resins (LDPE); High Density Polyethylene Resins (HDPE); Linear Low Density Polyethylene Resins (LLDPE); and Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymers Resins (EVA). These resins, after processed by downstream manufacturers, are made into a great variety of plastic items for everyday use.
Upon set-up, the company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Distillers & Chemical Corporation (NDCC) of the USA. The LDPE plant built in the Kaohsiung area was the first of its kind in Taiwan. Production started in May 1968 and, after many expansions including the addition of EVA production lines, current capacity for the LDPE unit stands at 120,000MT per annum. NDCC later transferred its ownership, 43% of the then-issued shares, to a Hong Kong registered company, Shing Lee Enterprises, in late 1982.
A new LLDPE plant came on stream in Dec. 1989. In addition to LLDPE, it was also designed to produce HDPE with a total capacity of 160,000MT per annum.
The major feedstock for our production, ethylene, is supplied by CPC Corporation, Taiwan (CPC)'s No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 naphtha crackers. Total quantity provided by the three crackers, however, represents only two thirds of our total ethylene requirements. The gap was partly fulfilled by imported ethylene. To make best use of the limited ethylene allocation, we gave production priority to the more profitable LDPE and EVA. We also focused on expanding the LLDPE market.
Since Mar. 1, 1997, we have been involved in the management of CGPC group companies, which we acquired indirectly with Union Petrochemical Company. The purpose of the acquisition was to enlarge our business scope and to create synergy. In addition, we have been active in diversifying our investment to various sectors such as electronics, materials, banking, venture capital, and other areas with distinct contributions to the bottom lines.
The company has a unique R&D Division at Guishan District in Taoyuan City. It is an independent research and development center. Its outstanding performance in the R&D area earned the lab a top prize in the Consumer Petrochemical Sector of the 4th Technology Advancement Award given by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1995.
The company obtained ISO-9002 certification on November 7, 1995 and successfully converted to the 2000 version of ISO 9001 on December 20, 2002. USI also gained ISO14001 certification in March 1998 and OHSAS 18001 certification in March, 2001. On March 10, 1999, our Kaohsiung plant received a prize from the National Environmental Protection Commission of the Executive Yuan for "Outstanding Pollution Control".
The mission of the company is to provide excellent products and services to meet the requirement of our customers. Through a "Total Quality Management" system, we are committed to achieving higher operating performance and a sustainable competitive edge.