Battered by soaring fuel costs, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower,
Taipower president Edward Chen (
For the first time in history, the nation is expected to see red ink in its financial report this year. For the first seven months of the year, Taipower posted a pre-tax loss of NT$2.06 billion.
A Chinese-language newspaper yesterday speculated that the rate hikes could range between 10 percent and 15 percent. Chen refused to comment on that speculation, or reveal the specific date the new rates may take effect.
The prices of imported coal have surged from US$25 per tonne last year to US$60 per tonne in recent days, said Lee Chuan-lai (李傳來), a Taipower public relations official.
Lee said the company estimated in June that with adjustment in electricity fees, the company will report a loss of NT$9 billion next year. Therefore the price hike is necessary to maintain the keep the company in business.
Besides electricity bill hikes, consumers are also likely to pay more on their water bills. The water fees have been kept almost at the same level for 10 years. Joses Wu (
Huang Ching-szu (
The company could use part of the fee increase to improve water quality and repair old and damaged pipelines that leak 20 percent to 25 percent of water supply, he added.
The water company saw losses of NT$286 million last month because of a rise in raw materials costs. The company reported NT$60 million in net losses in the January-July period.
Overall, Taiwan Water incurred debts of NT$50 billion to NT$60 billion, Wu said.
While the hikes in oil prices and commodity prices have touched off fears of stagflation, Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mei (
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