■ CPC increases prices
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) yesterday announced the long-awaited price hikes of wholesale gasoline and diesel by NT$0.4 per liter and NT$0.5 per liter respectively. The new rates will take effect from midnight today, the company said in a statement.
CPC said that prices of oil are rising again over unrest in the Middle East, strikes in oil exporting nations in East Africa, and disrupted production in Russia, pushing crude oil prices to US$39.466 per barrel on the US benchmark grade West Texas Intermediate (WTI).
■ Textile fair opens
Major Taiwanese textile manufacturing firms are displaying their new high-tech products at an annual textile trade fair in New York that opened Wednesday at the Manhattan Center for a two-day run.
On display at the Taiwanese booth are newly developed high-end synthetic fibers, eco-friendly fibers, various types of functional fibers and fibers for non-woven fabrics.
The nation is the world's second largest synthetic fiber producing country, with an annual production of 4 million tonnes. About 65 percent of Taiwan-produced synthetic fibers are for domestic use while the remaining 35 percent are exported.
■ China Airlines launches tours
China Airlines Ltd (華航) yesterday launched a series of new inbound tour packages "Dynasty Package: discovering Taiwan," targeted at individual tourists from Hong Kong and Japan, the company said in a statement.
These packages are also a part of the government's tourism promoting plans, aiming to double the annual number of inbound tourists by 2008, the statement added.
The design of the packages took into account a survey of foreign tourists by the Tourism Bureau. According to the survey, the major attractions in this country are food, scenery and cultural heritage.
■ Effem gets ultimatum
The Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday said it would file a class-action law suit against Effem Foods Taiwan (美商艾汾) if the pet food company fails to clarify within one week how it will act to compensate dog owners, whose pets may have developed kidney failure with Pedigree dog food.
The foundation accused the company of never making public its criteria for compensation.
In response, Effem said in a statement that the company has so far compensated more than 80 percent of affected dog owners, adding that its compensation efforts were earlier approved by both the Consumer Protection Commission and the Taiwan Veterinarian Medical Association.
■ Job fair begins
An job fair jointly sponsored by the government and the private sector is slated to begin this weekend in Taipei to offer about 15,000 job opportunities for young people, organizers said yesterday.
The youth recruitment campaign will have 150 companies get together at the Taipei World Trade Center tomorrow and Sunday to provide about 15,000 job opportunities for young job seekers this summer.
The show will be the largest of its kind in 10 years, with leading businesses from the high-tech, financial and services sectors applying to take part in the fair, the organizers said.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, declining NT$0.124 to close at NT$33.911 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$718 million.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained