Eight local petrochemical companies recently submitted applications to the Ministry of Economic Affairs to invest up to US$7 billion in a joint venture in China after the government this month removed some bans on China-bound investment, Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan (石化工業同業公會) chairman Jack Shieh (謝俊雄) said yesterday.
On Oct. 1, the ministry relaxed restrictions on Taiwanese petrochemical firms’ investment in China, but required them to hold at least 50 percent of shares in any Chinese joint venture.
Shieh said the eight companies plan to invest in a joint venture with China-based Sinopec Corp (中石化) in Fujian Province’s Gulei Peninsula, but the ministry’s Investment Commission yesterday said it had not yet received the applications.
The eight firms are Ho Tung Chemical Corp (和桐), Hsin Tay Petroleum Co Ltd (盛台), USI Corp (台聚), Asia Polymer Corp (亞聚), TSRC Corp (台橡), LCY Chemical Corp (榮化), Grand Pacific Petrochemical Corp (國喬) and Lien Hwa Industrial Corp (聯華氣體).
“The plan to build oil refineries and naphtha crackers in Fujian is still a rough draft and has not yet received approval from the government,” Shieh told reporters.
The portion of the shareholding among local firms has not yet been decided, Shieh said.
Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) is still conducting an analysis on whether to increase petrochemical investment in China, FPG vice chairwoman Susan Wang (王瑞華) reportedly told reporters yesterday at a corporate event, as traditional naphtha crackers face challenges from the emerging shale gas industry.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) said in a report released yesterday that Taiwan’s petrochemical sector would see its output grow by between 3.3 and 3.9 percent this year from last year.
However, local manufacturers’ output for next year will grow by only between 1.5 and 2 percent due to intensifying competition in the global market arising from higher operating costs, the report said, saying that Chinese petrochemical firms will use locally produced raw materials to cut costs, while US firms will rely more on cheaper shale oil and gas to mass-produce ethylene and propylene products.
“The government should assist local petrochemical companies to enhance their competitiveness in the global market by reducing tariffs in the short tern,” ITRI analyst Tseng Fan-ming (曾繁銘) said.
“Taiwanese petrochemical firms also need to explore new markets, preferably Southeast Asian countries, to reduce reliance on China’s market, and produce more high value-added chemical products to increase their competitiveness,” he added.
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
Garment maker Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) yesterday reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue of NT$7.93 billion (US$251.44 million), down 9.48 percent from NT$8.76 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, revenue fell 10.83 percent from NT$8.89 billion, company data showed. The figure was also lower than market expectations of NT$8.05 billion, according to data compiled by Yuanta Securities Investment and Consulting Co (元大投顧), which had projected NT$8.22 billion. Makalot’s revenue this quarter would likely increase by a mid-teens percentage as the industry is entering its high season, Yuanta said. Overall, Makalot’s revenue last year totaled NT$34.43 billion, down 3.08 percent from its record NT$35.52
RSS