Resin manufacturer and wind farm developer Swancor Holding Co Ltd (上緯) yesterday said it had secured a NT$1.72 billion (US$56.41 million) syndicated loan from eight domestic banks led by First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), to its refinance debt and bolster its operating capital.

The company, which has paid-in capital of NT$908.5 million, last year allocated NT$3 billion for capital expenditure to speed up its newly developed wind power business.

“The syndicated loan will definitely improve Swancor’s financial structure,” company spokesman Tsai Tse-ming (蔡澤明) said by telephone yesterday.

The company plans to budget only NT$300 million in capital expenditure this year, as the investment for its ongoing wind farm project has almost been completed, Tsai added.

Swancor said its offshore wind farm in Miaoli County is expected to deliver 128MW when fully commissioned by the end of 2019.

The company’s wind power subsidiary, Formosa I Wind Power Co (海洋風電公司), in April obtained a commercial operating license for a wind farm from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The Investment Commission also approved Sydney-based Macquarie Capital and Denmark’s DONG Energy A/S’s applications for stakes of 50 percent and 35 percent respectively in the project. The remaining 15 percent is to be held by Swancor, which is to remain in charge of the wind project.

As for its core business, the company is also expending effort on raising capacity in China and Malaysia so it might secure more orders for high-margin materials.

Swancor said its new specialty chemicals plant in China’s Jiangsu Province is to begin trial runs this quarter.

The Jiangsu plant — which is to produce 15,000 tonnes of corrosion-resistant materials per year — is to begin production next quarter, the firm said.

The company is set to start construction of a new corrosion-resistant material factory in Malaysia in the second half of the year. The new facility is to manufacture products for customers in Southeast Asia, with an annual production capacity of 11,000 tonnes.

Swancor operates a chemical factory in Nantou County, where it is based, as well as factories in Shanghai and Tianjin in China.

Corrosion-resistant materials and wind turbine blade resin remained the company’s major sources of revenue, making up 49 percent and 38 percent of last quarter’s total, company data showed.

Swancor shares rose 2.04 percent to close at NT$70 in Taipei trading yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which edged up 0.05 percent to 10,420.68 points.