Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, said it expects its revenue this quarter to be higher than last quarter’s NT$47.8 billion (US$1.56 billion), as it should benefit from a higher utilization rate.
“The company’s utilization rate should reach more than 90 percent this quarter from last quarter’s 88 percent,” Formosa Plastics Corp president Jason Lin (林健男) told an earnings conference yesterday.
Nine factories went through regular maintenance during the period, while only two plants are scheduled to conduct maintenance this quarter, the company said.
Apart from larger capacity, it also expects increasing demand from global customers, as the second quarter is usually a peak season for petrochemical companies.
As part of its business strategy, the company said it is aiming to reach more customers from Southeast Asia and the Middle East this year, in a bid to reduce reliance on Chinese customers.
Beijing’s tighter capital controls and higher environmental standards have lowered demand for petrochemical products there, Lin said.
The company posted a net profit of NT$9.89 billion, or NT$1.55 earnings per share, for last quarter, representing a 18 percent decline from the previous quarter.
The company attributed the decline from three months earlier to lower production capacity and a foreign exchange loss of NT$1.69 billion because of the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the US dollar.
However, the net profit translates into a 73.1 percent increase from NT$5.71 billion a year earlier, buoyed by soaring oil prices and improving demand, it said.
Another three major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, also saw last quarter’s profit increase between 73.1 percent and 116.5 percent on an annual basis.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only listed oil refiner, saw its net profit increase 116.5 percent annually to NT$22.6 billion last quarter, or NT$2.37 earnings per share.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrene, posted a net profit of NT$11.7 billion, or NT$2 earnings per share, up 73.2 percent from the previous year.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker, saw its net profit soar 102.1 percent annually to NT$10.86 billion, or NT$1.37 earnings per share, company data showed.
The group saw its overall profits increase 94.7 percent to NT$55.06 billion last quarter from a year earlier, with revenue up 21.3 percent to NT$374.2 billion.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained