Crude futures prices fell slightly on Friday, capping off a 5 percent decline from a week ago, as worries about low winter fuel inventories dissipate amid rising oil supplies.
Light, sweet crude for December declined US$0.10 to US$47.32 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, settling nearly US$8 below the late October peak of US$55.17. December Brent crude traded at US$42.31, down US$0.71 on the International Petroleum Exchange in London.
A research note by Credit Suisse First Boston said the downtrend in oil prices had reasserted itself after the markets rose Wednesday following the US government's latest petroleum supply report. That report showed the supply of distillate fuel, which includes heating oil, shrank for the eighth consecutive week -- a disappointment to many traders who had been expecting a break in the trend.
By Thursday, though, confidence that the refining industry would produce enough heating oil before winter reemerged, sending prices US$1.44 per barrel lower and reversing all but a nickel of Wednesday's gain.
"The US$55 per barrel prices seen in October were never warranted by the market fundamentals, and with no new supply threats appearing the market could not sustain the rally," the London-based World Markets Research Center said. "However, prices are unlikely to slide below US$45 in the immediate future, given the still precarious distillate situation in the US and the upcoming Nigerian general strike."
Wednesday's US Energy Department report showed commercially available supplies of distillates dipped by 100,000 barrels last week to 115.6 million barrels, or 13 percent below year ago levels.
Heating oil for December was unchanged at US$1.3636 per gallon on Nymex, where gasoline futures rose US$0.12 to US$1.2569 per gallon. Natural gas futures settled at US$7.16 per 1,000 cubic meters, a decline of US$0.76.
Markets have been tense for months due to the world's limited excess production capacity, now only around 1 percent above the daily consumption of 82.4 million barrels, leaving little room to maneuver in the event of a production outage. Such a disruption could come next week as Nigerian unions vowed to defy a court order blocking a strike set for Nov. 16. Nigeria produces 2.5 million barrels a day and is the world's seventh-largest exporter.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six