Taipei, Nov. 6, 2012 (CENS)--The four major member firms of Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) racked up total revenue of NT$133.386 billion in October, up 4.5% sequentially. Of the four firms, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre had the best performance, as its revenue in the month jumped over 10% sequentially to NT$22.189 billion. The presidents of the four companies noted yesterday (Oct. 5) that despite adverse overall climate, their companies will perform better in the fourth quarter than the third quarter.
The performances of the four companies were publicized at a joint investors' conference yesterday. Performances of Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya Plastics Corp., and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. in October all meet market expectation. Formosa Chemicals & Fibre's revenue leapt 10.9% sequentially in the month, slightly higher than market expectation, while revenue of Nan Ya Plastics dropped 9.5% sequentially, the only company with a sales decline among the four.
Total revenue of the four companies inched up 2.9% year-on-year to NT$1.264 trillion in the first 10 months this year.
Hung Fu-yuan, president of Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, attributed the company's good performance in October to resumption of the production of SM, synthetic phenols, and acetone following regular maintenance of production facilities, as well as resumption of PC production after securing materials supply.
In addition, suspension of PTA production in mainland China for regular maintenance boosted demand for PX.
Hung Fu-yuan noted that Formosa Chemicals & Fibre plans to suspend production of PTA for regular maintenance to cope with sluggish market demand.
Tsao Min, president of Formosa Petrochemical, reported that strong demand from Formosa Plastics, Nan Ya Plastics, and Formosa Chemicals & Fibre has enhanced the company's refining amount, cutting unit production cost. He reported that at present, Formosa Petrochemical derives its profits mainly from petrochemical materials. Along with the inauguration of the third and fourth EG plants of Nan Ya, the capacity utilization rate of the company's third olefin plant will top 90% in November, up from October's 85%.
Wu Chia-chao, president of Nan Ya Plastics, pointed out that the company's EG plant with annual capacity of 1.8 million metric tons will run at full capacity after Nov. 7, boosting its capacity utilization rate to over 90%.
(by Philip Liu)