OPTIMISTIC:As Asian manufacturers have dropping inventories of ethylene vinyl acetate, Formosa Plastics Corp chairman Jason Lin is confident the company can fill critical demand

Taipei Times
Date:  Nov 07, 2017
By: Kuo Chia-erh  /  Staff reporter

Formosa Plastics Corp (FPC, 台塑), the nation’s largest producer of polyvinyl chloride, yesterday gave an optimistic business outlook for this quarter, as the global petrochemicals market remains undersupplied.

Revenue this quarter is expected to surpass last quarter’s NT$53.88 billion (US$1.78 billion), as product prices are forecast to hover at relatively high levels due to unresolved supply constraints, FPC chairman and president Jason Lin (林健男) told an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to sodium hydroxide and methyl methacrylate.

Global prices of ethylene vinyl acetate are also expected to remain high, as most Chinese and South Korean manufacturers have seen their inventories drop to below normal levels, indicating that supply is in a critical peak season, Lin told reporters.

FPC yesterday reported that sales last month dropped 5.8 percent month-on-month to NT$16.58 billion from NT$17.6 billion because of fewer working days in the Chinese market, but it represented annual growth of 9.6 percent from NT$15.13 billion, as prices climbed amid short supply in China.    [FULL  STORY]