Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday reported revenue of NT$120.68 billion (US$3.91 billion) for last month, 31.2 percent year-on-year growth as it benefited from higher crude oil prices.
However, that was a 6.8 percent decline from the previous month, with company officials attributing to fall to regular and unexpected facilities maintenance which reduced production output.
Of the group’s four major units, Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台灣塑膠), the group’s flagship company, posted the highest sales growth.
Revenue at FPC, the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, grew 34.1 percent year-on-year and 1.1 percent month-on-month to NT$12.97 billion, company data showed.
“Soaring commodity prices helped stimulate the prices of downstream petrochemical products last month,” FPC chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday, citing the upward trends in crude oil and ethylene prices.
International crude oil prices last month surged 85 percent from the previous year, while ethylene prices jumped 42 percent, the group’s statement said.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC, 台塑石化), the oil refinery arm of the group, said that rising commodity prices helped boost its oil product prices by US$26.1 per barrel on average last month, compared with the previous year.
FPCC posted sales of NT$53.14 billion last month, up 33.4 percent year-on-year, but down 12.2 percent month-on-month.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, reported sales of NT$29.68 billion, up 32.5 percent year-on-year, but down 1.3 percent month-on-month.
Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), the nation’s largest plastics maker, posted sales of NT$22.9 billion last month, up 23.2 percent year-on-year, but down 4.6 percent month-on-month.
The four major units gave positive business outlooks for the second quarter, as the petrochemical industry is entering its peak season and crude oil prices are likely to remain stable in the short term.
“We expect production volume and product prices to increase in the second quarter, especially polyvinyl chloride,” Lin said.
FPC is targeting an average utilization rate of 95 percent next quarter, compared with this quarter’s 89 percent.
Nan Ya Plastics chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) said the company expects sales to grow next quarter amid an economic recovery in China.
Chinese customers contribute nearly 27 percent of Nan Ya’s total revenue, he added.
The group’s revenue was NT$250.11 billion in the first two months, up 28.9 percent year-on-year, company data showed.
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