Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, yesterday gave an optimistic business outlook for this quarter, as the global petrochemicals market remains undersupplied.
Revenue this quarter is expected to surpass last quarter’s NT$53.88 billion (US$1.78 billion), as product prices are forecast to hover at relatively high levels due to unresolved supply constraints, FPC chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to sodium hydroxide and methyl methacrylate.
Global prices of ethylene vinyl acetate are also expected to remain high, as most Chinese and South Korean manufacturers have seen their inventories drop to below normal levels, indicating that supply is in a critical peak season, Lin told reporters.
FPC yesterday reported that sales last month dropped 5.8 percent month-on-month to NT$16.58 billion from NT$17.6 billion because of fewer working days in the Chinese market, but it represented annual growth of 9.6 percent from NT$15.13 billion, as prices climbed amid short supply in China.
Some Chinese petrochemical makers have shut down production lines in recent months, as Beijing began to tighten its environmental regulations ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress, FPC said.
The price of sodium hydroxide last month grew by 41 percent from the previous year due to robust demand for aluminum oxide, especially from customers in the automotive and construction industries, the company said.
FPC saw its aggregate sales in the first 10 months of this year rise 17.5 percent to NT$170.22 billion from NT$144.86 billion in the same period last year.
The three other main units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) also reported annual revenue increases last month.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker, posted revenue of NT$26.06 billion for last month, representing a 2 percent decrease from NT$26.59 billion a month earlier and 14.5 percent growth from NT$22.77 billion a year earlier.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, saw its sales grow 7 percent to NT$31.68 billion from NT$29.62 billion a month ago. That figure translates into a 21.2 percent surge from NT$26.14 billion a year ago, company data show.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) — Taiwan’s only listed oil refiner — saw revenue of NT$52.41 billion, a 0.5 percent increase from NT$52.13 billion the previous month and 8.9 percent from NT$48.12 billion the previous year.
The group saw its overall revenue last month increase 0.6 percent monthly and 13 percent annually to NT$126.74 billion.
From January through October, the group reported cumulative revenue of NT$1.22 trillion, a 13.6 percent increase from NT$1.08 trillion in the same period last year.
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