Formosa Plastics Group units report Q4 losses on a slowing global economy cut demand

05-Jan-12

Units of Formosa Plastics Group - Formosa Petrochemical Corp. and Nan Ya Plastics Corp., have reported fourth-quarter losses, as a slowing global economy cut demand. Missing estimates, Formosa Petrochemical posted a pretax loss of NT$4.39 billion (US$145 mln) for the three months ended Dec. 31. Processor Nan Ya reported a loss of NT$1.57 billion on a pretax basis, compared with the NT$8.87 billion pretax profit that analysts expected. Group Chairman William Wong said last month he is downbeat on the first-half outlook for the oil and petrochemical industry because of the European debt crisis and the U.S. economy. GDP growth in China, Taiwan’s biggest overseas market, is expected to slow down to 7.9% in 2012, the slowest pace in 13 years. Chemical producer Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp. posted a pretax loss of NT$2.21 billion. PVC maker Formosa Plastics Corp. posted a pretax profit of NT$942 million in the fourth quarter, less than the NT$9.12 billion average of three analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.