Formosa Petrochemical plans to boost overseas sales

Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation's only publicly traded oil refiner, said it plans to boost sales of gasoline and diesel this year as it expands in overseas markets such as China and Australia.

The company expects to increase gasoline sales 4.3 percent to 5.8 million kiloliters and diesel sales by 11 percent to 6.76 million kiloliters, according to the company's annual report distributed to shareholders today.

Formosa Petrochemical is trying to boost exports because competition with Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) gives the company little room to raise domestic fuel prices. Taiwan's per-barrel crude oil import costs in March increased 42 percent from a year earlier, while gasoline prices rose less than 8 percent.

State-owned CPC and Mailiao-based Formosa Petrochemical, Taiwan's only oil refiners, also have units that process naphtha, an oil product, into ethylene for making plastics and fibers.

Formosa Petrochemical plans to expand in the China, Middle East, Australian and South American fuel markets, the company said. Its current overseas markets include South Korea, the US and Southeast Asia.

Exports accounted for 46 percent of Formosa's gasoline sales and 73 percent of diesel sales last year, the company said.

Formosa Petrochemical is boosting its crude oil refining capacity by 20 percent and annual ethylene capacity by 1.2 million tonnes, as well as building a 450,000-tonne-a-year base oil plant, expected to be completed in 2007, according to the company report.

Capacity stands at 450,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 1.6 million tonnes of ethylene a year.