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Nan Ya more than doubles profit on demand from China

Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation's largest plastics maker, more than doubled its profit in the fourth quarter as demand from China boosted product prices.

Net income surged to NT$13.9 billion (US$451 million) from NT$5.76 billion a year earlier. Bloomberg derived the fourth-quarter figure by subtracting nine-month profit from full-year earnings the company released yesterday.

"Demand from the mainland grew rapidly. Earnings from petrochemicals increased several times over," the company said in a fax yesterday.

China's consumption of chemicals to make plastics and textiles soared as its economy expanded 9.5 percent last year.

That demand helped push up prices of ethylene glycol, one of Nan Ya Plastics's products, which is used to make polyester.

Ethylene glycol prices rose about 40 percent last year, according to data from oil-pricing service Platts.

Nan Ya Plastics' net income for last year increased to a record NT$43.5 billion, or NT$6.23 per share, company spokesman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said yesterday.

That is more than double the NT$17.2 billion, or NT$2.46 per share, the company posted in 2003. Fourth-quarter sales rose 17 percent to NT$42.55 billion.

Shares of Nan Ya Plastics fell NT$0.20, or 0.4 percent, to close at NT$48.8.

"Demand from China was still quite good" during the fourth quarter, Audrey Chiu, an analyst at Yuanta Core Pacific Capital Management Co (元大京華投顧), said before the earnings announcement. She recommends that investors buy the company's stock during the first half of the year.
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