The four major units of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團), the nation’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday reported a combined net loss of NT$1.087 billion (US$34.4 million) for last year, due to a decrease in product prices amid China’s overcapacity and smaller sales volumes given the US tariff hikes.
The four units — Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠), Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp (台灣化學纖維) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) — had posted a combined net profit of NT$8.458 billion the year before.
The group’s poor performance was primarily driven by Formosa Plastics, as the group’s flagship company saw its net loss expand by NT$8.82 billion from the previous year to NT$10.05 billion, or NT$1.58 in losses per share, owing to sinking average product prices and sales volumes, the company’s regulatory filing showed.
Photo: Taipei Times File Photo
Annual revenue fell 12.3 percent to NT$175.4 billion, it showed.
In addition, Formosa Chemicals and Fibre, a producer of aromatics and styrenics, had a net loss of NT$5.488 billion last year, or NT$0.94 in losses per share — its first-ever annual losses — amid falling crude oil prices and poor market conditions, its regulatory filing showed. Annual revenue dropped 17.7 percent to NT$287.034 billion, the filing showed.
However, Formosa Petrochemical, the nation’s only listed oil refiner, reported that its net profit rose 65 percent to NT$9.941 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.04, even though annual revenue was down 5.7 percent to NT$626.149 billion.
Nan Ya Plastics, the nation’s largest plastics maker, saw its net profit rise 35 percent to NT$4.51 billion, or earnings per share of NT$0.57, as income from electronic material products increased amid the artificial intelligence boom. Annual revenue rose slightly by 0.11 percent to NT$259.903 billion.
By taking into account last year’s performance and conservative prospects for this year, the group said it would issue year-end bonuses equivalent to three months of wages, the same as the past two years, for its employees later this month.
For this quarter, Formosa Plastics expects revenue to be lower than last quarter’s NT$41.1 billion, as the Lunar New Year holiday next month cuts the number of working days and eight plants enter regular maintenance cycles by the end of March, the company said.
Nan Ya Plastics expects this quarter’s revenue to stay flat from last quarter’s NT$64.46 billion, as the continued strong momentum in the electronic materials business offsets the impact of the Lunar New Year holiday, it said.
Formosa Petrochemicals and Formosa Chemicals are also conservative about this quarter, citing the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday’s effect, with Formosa Petrochemicals pointing out the oversupply of global crude oil as a lingering issue from last year to add pressure to oil prices in the first half of this year, the companies said.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday introduced the company’s latest supercomputer platform, featuring six new chips made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), saying that it is now “in full production.” “If Vera Rubin is going to be in time for this year, it must be in production by now, and so, today I can tell you that Vera Rubin is in full production,” Huang said during his keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas. The rollout of six concurrent chips for Vera Rubin — the company’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing platform — marks a strategic
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
RSS