Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), forecast that PVC prices in Asia would remain at relatively high levels this quarter thanks to rising demand from India, a company official said earlier this month.
India’s demand this year for building materials is expected to grow significantly, given the country’s strong economic growth, Formosa Plastics chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told an earnings conference in Taipei.
The IMF predicted that the Indian economy would grow at a rate of 7.4 percent this year, outpacing China’s projected growth of 6.8 percent, he said, adding that India’s higher expenditure on infrastructure projects is estimated to further stimulate demand for petrochemical products.
PVC prices in India rose above US$1,030 per tonne last week, an increase of US$10 per tonne from the previous week, online petrochemical information Web site Polymerupdate reported.
Formosa Plastics’ optimistic prediction also comes from lower PVC production volume in Asia this quarter, as some of the company’s Asian peers plan to conduct routine maintenance on their plants from February to May, which would lend support to a price hike due to lower supply.
The temporary shutdown for maintenance is to affect nearly 4 percent of Asia’s total PVC production volume, Formosa Plastics said.
The firm is also upbeat about the sales outlook of its two benchmark products, acrylonitrile and methyl methacrylate (MMA), as the global market is expected to remain undersupplied in the near term.
Some Chinese acrylonitrile suppliers have halted production because of higher environmental standards for manufacturing industries implemented by the Chinese government, while MMA manufacturers in South Korea, Japan and Thailand plan to cut production volume for regular maintenance, the company said.
The undersupply of acrylonitrile products is forecast to continue until April, Formosa Plastics said, adding that the problem should cause prices to climb higher.
The company, a major unit of Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), posted revenue of NT$19.16 billion (US$65.3 million) for last month, a 29.4 percent year-on-year increase from NT$14.81 billion, which it attributed to continued buying interest in major Asian markets.
The company’s PVC sales volume last month increased by 31,000 tonnes from a year earlier, while sales of polyethylene and polypropylene rose by 17,000 tonnes and 30,000 tonnes respectively.
The Taipei-headquartered company is capable of producing 1.265 million tonnes of PVC resin per year, its Web site said.
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
YEAR-END BOOST: The holiday shopping season in the US and Europe, combined with rising demand for AI applications, is expected to drive exports to a new high, the NDC said Taiwan’s business climate monitor improved last month, transitioning from steady growth for the first time in five months, as robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and new iPhone shipments boosted exports and corporate sales, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. The council uses a five-color system to measure the nation’s economic state, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” reflecting a recession. “Yellow-red” and “yellow-blue” suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker condition. The total score of the monitor’s composite index rose to 35 points from a revised 31 in August, ending a four-month
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
RSS