The nation's two oil refiners said they would keep wholesale gasoline prices stable for the moment, after US light crude yesterday surged to a 13-year high of US$38.98 a barrel.
"We will fix our wholesale prices at the current level at least to the end of this month," Liao Tsang-long (
The company doesn't rule out the possibility of raising prices next month if crude prices remain high, Liao said.
Chinese Petroleum, a state-run refiner with nearly 70 percent market share, has hiked its wholesale gasoline and diesel prices three times this year to reflect soaring costs.
The company's latest price adjustment came on March 25, when gasoline prices rose from NT$21.5 to NT$23.7 per liter, and diesel prices from NT$16 to NT$16.5 per liter. The prices are 9 percent to 10 percent higher than they were at the end of last year.
Chinese Petroleum may consider raising prices again only when crude oil hits US$40 a barrel, Liao said, although he said that was unlikely to happen in the near future. The last time crude oil hit the US$40-level was 14 years ago in the runup to the Gulf War.
"The soaring prices are simply a result of psychological sentiment in the market rather than the real supply of oil," Liao said. "In this way, we'd rather keep the current rate and not hike prices again and risk triggering inflation."
For the first four months of the year, Chinese Petroleum reported pre-tax revenue of NT$5.8 billion, nearly 56 percent of its annual goal of NT$10.4. Liao refused to comment on whether Chinese Petroleum's pricing policy would dent the company's finances for the second half of the year.
The nation's second-largest oil refiner, Formosa Petrochemical Corp (
"We know that costs have been significantly increasing, but we need to maintain the rate to compete with Chinese Petroleum ... Furthermore, our bright performance in the first quarter can help us to hold up the policy," Lin said.
Formosa Petrochemical had net income of NT$9.65 billion for the first quarter of the year, a 129 percent jump from the same period last year and 51.33 percent of the company's annual forecast.
The company raised its after-tax profit forecast for the year to NT$25.92 billion, 39.48 percent up from its previous prediction.
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