Formosa Plastics Group’s (台塑集團, FPG) four leading firms yesterday reported that combined sales last month reached NT$135.07 billion (US$4.56 billion), up 21.7 percent from a year ago.
Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) posted the highest growth among the four, with record-high sales of NT$27.19 billion, an increase of 27.1 percent from February last year.
Company president Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源) attributed the growth mainly to increased demand from China.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) had the second-best performance among the four, with sales of NT$75.22 billion, up 23.2 percent.
The company said growth came from rising crude oil prices, which prompted it to increase its refining capacity from 450,000 barrels to 480,000 barrels per day.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) reported sales of NT$18.05 billion last month, up 18.1 percent year-on-year. However, sales dropped 7.01 percent from January.
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑) posted sales of NT$14.63 billion last month, up 9.98 percent from a year earlier, but sales were also down 16 percent from January.
The company attributed the decline from January to Beijing’s move to tighten money supply, which prompted intermediary traders to cut inventories and imports from Taiwan.
The four companies reported combined sales of NT$1.43 trillion last year.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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