The four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) all posted revenue declines last month, citing regular maintenance and shrinking market demand, according to their separate filings to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only listed oil refiner, saw consolidated revenue of NT$77.28 billion (US$2.58 billion) last month, down 11.58 percent from NT$87.4 billion a year ago, the company said.
From January through last month, accumulated revenue was NT$247.82 billion, up 7.63 percent from NT$230.25 billion a year ago.
The year-on-year revenue decline last month was due to annual maintenance work at the company’s oil refinery, vice president Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said by telephone yesterday.
With more refineries undergoing annual maintenance next month and in June, Lin said sales volume in the current quarter would drop.
Lin said that market demand in China is also weaker than expected and oil prices dropped significantly recently.
As a result, Formosa Petrochemical’s performance this quarter might be weaker than last quarter, he said.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC, 台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, saw its revenue fall 4.61 percent to NT$34.96 billion last month from NT$36.65 billion the previous year.
In the first three months, accumulated sales totaled NT$105.12 billion, up 0.2 percent from NT$104.91 billion in the same period of last year, the company said.
FCFC general manager Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源) said sales this month would still be affected by low market sentiment, but conditions might improve later this month.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker, reported a yearly decline of 16.46 percent in consolidated revenue last month to NT$23.98 billion from NT$28.7 billion. First-quarter sales fell 6.3 percent to NT$74.27 billion from NT$79.26 billion the previous year.
Nan Ya general manager Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said production volume declined because the company had to replace catalysts in its ethylene glycol factories. The process will be completed by the middle of this month.
Meanwhile, Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, said consolidated revenue fell 14.84 percent year-on-year to NT$17.35 billion last month from NT$20.37 billion. First-quarter sales declined 5.97 percent to NT$50.04 billion from from NT$53.22 billion a year ago.
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