Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化纖) expects revenue to rise by double digits this year from last year as nations around the world work to revive their economies.
“We expect the demand and prices of our products to increase this year as a result of quantitative easing policies and low interest rates,” chairman William Wong (王文淵) said at a shareholders’ meeting.
Revenue is set to increase this year because of fewer maintenance plans for the company’s factories than last year, Wong said.
Revenue at the Taipei-based company, which produces aromatics and styrenics, dropped 1.14 percent to NT$391.6 billion (US$13.07 billion) last year from NT$396.13 billion in 2011. In the first five months of this year, it saw its accumulated revenue increase 3.96 percent to NT$180.98 billion from a year ago.
The firm said it expects to complete capacity expansion plans at its factory in Ningbo, China, early next year, which will make the plant capable of producing 50,000 tonnes of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and 300,000 tonnes of phenol a year.
The plant, capable of producing 150,000 tonnes of styrene acrylonitrile a year, was operational in the fourth quarter last year, the company said.
Shareholders approved the firm’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$0.65 and a stock dividend of 0.3 percent, based on last year’s earnings of NT$7.09 billion, or NT$1.25 per share.
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