Three major units of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday reported monthly revenue increases amid rising sales volume.
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the group’s flagship company, reported revenue of NT$15.13 billion (US$480 million) for last month, a 15.6 percent increase from September, but an 8.8 percent decline from the same period last year.
“Most of our factories completed annual maintenance last month, which helped lift overall sales volume during the period,” Formosa Plastics Corp president Jason Lin (林健男) told a news conference.
The company is upbeat about its sales outlook for the end of this year, as the utilization rate is expected to be higher than previous months.
The utilization rate this quarter is forecast to reach 91 percent, compared with 78 percent in the third quarter, company data showed.
As for demand, Lin said that increased spending on infrastructure in China and India would support demand for polyvinyl chloride.
Two other core units of the group also saw sales rise from September.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, reported revenue of NT$26.14 billion for last month, up 2.8 percent from the previous month and 0.9 percent from a year ago.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only privately owned oil refiner, posted revenue of NT$48.12 billion for last month, a 17.7 percent increase from a month earlier, but an annual decline of 10.2 percent.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) was the only FPG company to report a monthly decline in sales.
The nation’s largest plastics manufacturer reported revenue of NT$22.77 billion for last month, falling 0.9 percent from the previous month and 1.8 percent from the same period last year.
The result could be attributed to weak demand for circuit boards, Nan Ya Plastics chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) told reporters, adding that some of the company’s downstream companies are digesting inventory.
Soaring demand for copper foil might help lift the company’s revenue in the near term, he said.
The group saw its combined revenue for last month increase 9.6 percent from the previous month to NT$112.16 billion, despite a 6 percent decline from a year ago.
In the first 10 months of the year, FPG reported cumulative revenue of NT$1.08 trillion, a 12.4 percent decline from the same period last year.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS