The four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday reported combined revenue totaled NT$111.4 billion (US$3.54 billion) for last month, down by 0.6 percent from June and 3.9 percent from the same period last year.
In the first seven months of this year, the group saw combined revenue decrease 14.8 percent to NT$755.2 billion from the same period last year, company data showed.
The four major units are Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化); Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠); Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維); and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠).
On a monthly basis, the only unit to report a decline in sales was Formosa Petrochemical, the nation’s only private oil refiner.
The company posted revenue of NT$45.89 billion for last month, down by 6 percent from June and 4 percent from the same period last year.
“The drop in revenue last month was due to regular maintenance and the lower price of oil,” Formosa Petrochemical president Tsao Mihn (曹明) told a news conference.
Formosa Chemicals, a supplier of aromatics and styrene, reported sales last month totaled NT$27.97 billion, up by 2.5 percent from June and 0.8 percent annually.
After completing routine maintenance in June, the firm’s plants started to operate on schedule, boosting the company’s production, Formosa Chemicals president Hong Fu-yuan (洪福源) told reporters.
Nan Ya Plastics posted a 6.7 percent monthly increase in sales to NT$22.72 billion for last month, a drop of 7.1 percent from the same period last year.
The revenue increase was attributed to rising demand for electronics materials and plasticizers, Nan Ya Plastics chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said.
Formosa Plastics Corp, the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), reported a slight 0.8 percent monthly increase in revenue to NT$14.82 billion last month, a 6.7 percent annual decline.
The group holds a conservative outlook for the third quarter of the year, as Formosa Petrochemical’s second olefin plant is this month to undergo regular maintenance, which will last until next month.
As Formosa Petrochemical is the upstream supplier for the whole group, the other three units are to adjust their production during the plant’s maintenance, the group’s officials said.
However, global demand for PVC is expected to rise significantly in the third quarter, which would help to stimulate the group’s sales, they added.
Demand in India, the biggest importer of PVC in Asia, is growing due to ongoing infrastructure development projects, Formosa Plastics Corp president Jason Lin (林健男) added.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS