Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
"The Minister [of Economic Affairs] has instructed us and Taiwan Power Co (
Although he admitted that CPC had incurred hefty losses, Chen remained tight-lipped about whether the company would raise prices soon in order to offset soaring crude oil costs.
Chen made the remarks after a meeting with Minister of Economic Affairs Morgan Hwang (
The state refinery incurred losses of NT$3.2 billion (US$100 million) last month, and the deficits could grow this month if they cannot raise prices, Chen said.
CPC could post an annual loss of some NT$35 billion this year if crude oil prices stay above US$60 per barrel and the refinery is forced not to increase gasoline and diesel wholesale prices, the Economic Daily reported yesterday, citing an anonymous company official.
The soaring costs of crude oil have dented the refinery's annual profitability, with its press-tax income dropping to NT$9.6 billion last year, down from NT$21 billion in 2004, Chen said.
Crude oil for March delivery slid by 0.8 percent to US$64.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at press time, due to easing concerns about possible oil export cuts by Iran in response to the country's referral to the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.
The company may adjust gasoline prices upward gradually, with a first hike of about NT$1.5 per liter, the Economic Daily reported yesterday.
Matiz Lin (
The question of gas price hikes comes amid concern over inflation. A 10-percent rise in gasoline prices could boost the consumer price index (CPI) by 0.2 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Monday.
The nation's CPI for last month rose by 2.65 percent from a year ago, the highest in 11 months, as consumer prices were hiked for the Lunar New Year holiday.
But the wholesale price index surged last month, posting a 1.04 percent year-on-year rise.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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