Typhoon injures 107, shuts plants in Taiwan; China next

A handout photograph taken on September 20, 2010 shows an aerial view of the flooding caused by Typhoon Fanapi when it hit Nanzih District in Kaohsiung County, southern Taiwan.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A typhoon packing winds up to 162 kph (100 mph) injured more than 100 people as it crossed Taiwan on Monday and headed toward China, but it caused little of the disruption officials had feared after a deadly storm last year.

Typhoon Fanapi, Taiwan's most severe storm so far in 2010, shattered glass, knocked over motorists on scooters and flooded swathes of land, the National Fire Agency disaster response centre said.

The storm dumped up to to 1,125 mm (44 inches) on parts of the island, closing plants operated by USI Corp, TSRC Corp and others in a southern Taiwan petrochemicals industrial park, the disaster centre said.

Some remained closed on Monday.

Shipments from Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp were disrupted by the closure of a seaport near its 540,000-barrel-per-day Mailiao refinery complex, a company spokesman said.

In August 2009, slow-moving Typhoon Morakot dumped rain for days and set off mudslides that killed about 700 people. That prompted a cabinet reshuffle, as affected residents accused President Ma Ying-jeou of reacting too slowly.

Fanapi, initially a category 3 typhoon on a 1-5 scale, was expected to reach China's Guangdong province late on Monday as a lower-level tropical storm, according to forecasting website Tropical Storm Risk (www.tropicalstormrisk.com).

Typhoons regularly hit China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan in the second half of the year, gathering strength from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean or South China Sea before weakening over land.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings; Editing by Chris Lewis and Ron Popeski)

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