Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted a 32 percent annual decline in net profit for last quarter, after global crude oil prices plunged.
Total net profit totaled NT$39.22 billion (US$1.28 billion) for the April to June period, which translated to a 28.8 percent decrease from the previous quarter, data showed.
Three main units of the group reported annual declines in net profit last quarter, according to separate company filings with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) — the nation’s only listed oil refiner — led the decline, announcing that its net profit had plunged 53.3 percent year-on-year, or 46.7 percent quarter-on-quarter, to NT$12.05 billion. Earnings per share sank to NT$1.27.
Lower prices for the company’s major products also weighed on the earnings performance last quarter, Formosa Petrochemical president Tsao Minh (曹明) told an earnings conference in Taipei yesterday.
The average selling price of olefins dropped 14.6 percent to US$753 per tonne last quarter from US$882 per tonne in the previous quarter, Tsao said.
Formosa Petrochemical offered a conservative outlook for its profitability and global crude prices in the second half of the year.
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise key interest rates, if it happens, would curb the rebound of global crude oil prices in the third and fourth quarters, Tsao said.
The company is prone to the volatility of oil prices, he added.
Formosa Plastics Corp (台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride and the group’s flagship, posted a net profit of NT$9.71 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.53, down 4.8 percent from the previous year, and 1.8 percent from the previous quarter respectively.
Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維), which produces aromatics and styrenics, reported a net profit of NT$8.43 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.45, representing a 36.6 percent decline from a year earlier and a 28.1 percent decline from a quarter earlier.
Bucking the downward trend, Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) was the only unit of the group to report an annual increase in net profit for last quarter, attributed to improving customer demand and profits generated by its subsidiary Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chip supplier.
Nan Ya, the nation’s largest plastics maker, saw its net profit increase 8 percent annually to NT$9.03 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.14, but decline 16.9 percent quarter-on-quarter, company data showed.
Despite the sluggish performance last quarter, Formosa Plastics and Nan Ya yesterday provided relatively positive outlooks for the current quarter amid improving customer demand.
“Customer demand for ethylene vinyl acetate [EVA] and polyvinyl chloride [PVC] is usually higher in the third quarter,” Formosa Plastics chairman Jason Lin (林健男) said.
Nan Ya chairman Wu Chia-chau (吳嘉昭) echoed Lin’s remarks, saying that the demand for electric material and ethylene glycol (EG) is expected to grow further in the coming quarters.
The group saw its overall profits increase 9.7 percent annually to NT$94.3 billion in the first half of this year, with revenue up 12.1 percent to NT$721.8 billion.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS