Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only listed oil refiner, yesterday reported that its revenue increased by 15.86 percent last month from the previous month on rising global crude oil prices.
Revenue reached NT$76.76 billion (US$2.56 billion) last month, compared with NT$66.25 billion in June, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“Global oil prices tend to climb higher in the summer, beginning in July, when consumption surges,” Formosa Petrochemical vice president Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said by telephone. “Oil prices are expected to remain high in August and will decline in September.”
Lin said the company’s output of oil products increased last month from June after one of its oil refineries completed its annual maintenance, pushing its production volume to 500,000 barrels per day last month from 350,000 barrels per day a year ago.
In addition, sales of petrochemical products also increased last month from a month earlier after an ethylene glycol factory at Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), one of Formosa Petrochemical’s clients, resumed production last month, Lin said.
Last month’s sales were 21.77 percent higher than the NT$63.03 billion posted a year ago.
In the first seven months of the year, accumulated sales totaled NT$525.05 billion, up 5.06 percent from NT$499.75 billion the previous year, according to the filing.
Nan Ya Plastics, the nation’s largest plastics maker, yesterday reported revenue of NT$26.72 billion last month, up 15.38 percent from NT$23.16 billion in June, and 8.7 percent higher than the NT$24.59 billion posted the previous year, the company said in a separate filing.
“As well as rising production of ethylene glycol, sales of electronic materials and plasticizers also increased as downstream companies started manufacturing products to be sold during the Christmas season,” Nan Ya chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said by telephone.
From January through last month, accumulated sales totaled NT$175.02 billion, down 1.7 percent from NT$178.05 billion the previous year, the company said.
Another two major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) also released their sales data for last month, with Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, posting NT$36.14 billion in revenue, down 2.65 percent month-on-month, but up 17.78 percent year-on-year.
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, saw its revenue fall 1.13 percent to NT$18.16 billion from June, but up 12.85 percent from the previous year.
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