In October 2015, Water. Desalination + reuse (Faversham House) reported, citing local media, that Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group was assessing suppliers for a large desalination plant. The 100,000 m³/day (100 Ml/d) facility was planned at one of its naphtha cracker sites in Mailiao, Yunlin County, with an estimated budget of US$150 million (NT$5 billion), and was to be Taiwan's first large-scale plant. Candidate suppliers were based in Spain, Japan, Singapore and Israel. Formosa planned to seek EPA approval from February 2016 and expected a three-year build.
The report showed how industrial operators in Taiwan responded to forecast droughts: a petrochemical group planned its own water supply and turned to desalination to secure it.