Formosa Plastics breaks more sales records

The Formosa Plastics Group last year made combined revenue of NT$1.35 trillion, another record-breaking figure for the island's premier petrochemical conglomerate.

The NT$1.35 trillion represented a 29.69 percent increase over 2006's revenue. The group's stellar performance last year had to do with full capacity utilization at the group's naphtha cracking facilities and surging international oil prices, industry sources said.

Three firms under the group - Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya Plastics Corp., and Formosa Petrochemical Corp. - made record-breaking sales for December.

Formosa Petrochemical, the island's largest private refiner, saw December sales reaching NT$79.834 billion, despite the fact the company has pegged its gasoline prices with those of CPC Corp., which has gone on a pricing freeze. The figure was an increase of NT$12.301 billion over the NT$67.5 billion for November and an increase of 70.95 percent from the NT$46.7 billion for December 2006.

Overall, the company made NT$699.314 billion for 2007, a 32.05 percent increase from NT$529.565 billion in 2006.

Formosa Plastics Corp., meanwhile, made NT$16.952 billion in sales for December, a 34.1 percent increase over the NT$12.642 billion for December 2006. Its flagship products - polyethylene and ethylene-vinyl-acetate copolymers - helped fuel the company's sales as the markets for both products were robust throughout last year.

In total, Formosa Plastics Corp. made NT$181.607 billion in sales for the whole year, a 23.16 percent increase over the NT$147.458 billion for 2006.

As for Nan Ya, its December sales reached NT$23.019 billion, an increase of 43.78 percent over the NT$16.01 billion for the same period in 2006. The stellar performance was due to an increase in the prices of ethylene glycol. The company made NT$228.7 billion for the whole year, a 25.9 percent for 2006's NT$181.652 billion.

A fourth company under the group, Formosa Chemicals and Fiber Corp., registered December sales of NT$23.163 billion. Though not a historic high, it was a 36.27 percent increase from the NT$16.998 billion for the same period in 2006. Together, the company made NT$240.005 billion last year, a 31.88 percent increase from 2006's NT$181.981 billion.

Formosa Plastics, Nan Ya, Formosa Petrochemical and Formosa Chemicals and Fiber are collectively known as the "four treasures" of the Formosa Plastics Group.