Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Su made the remarks at a celebration of Chinese Petroleum Corp's (CPC, 中油) 60th anniversary.
At the same celebration CPC chairman Pan Wenent (
"We've encountered a big crisis this year ? we hope to obtain support from the Cabinet to float the price of oil products in line with international oil prices," Pan said.
"If oil prices can be determined by market mechanisms, I believe CPC will earn more than NT$2 per share after privatization," he said.
The state-run oil refiner raised wholesale gasoline and diesel oil prices by NT$2 per liter in April because of soaring crude oil prices.
The hike did not stem the company's losses, however, as CPC reported a NT$17.4 billion deficit for the first four months of the year.
Following the oil price rises, CPC has been waiting for the Cabinet's approval to raise the price of natural gas, but Su's reply indicated that CPC would have to wait a little longer.
"The government needs to take the likelihoods of the 23 million people of Taiwan into account," Su said.
"Gasoline prices should be decided by the market, but should not be allowed to heavily influence consumer prices in the meantime," he said.
Separately, CPC is inviting bids for a 25-year contract to transport liquefied natural gas from Qatar starting in 2008.
Competitors for the agreement, estimated to be valued at NT$86.9 billion (US$2.7 billion), must enter their bids by 5pm on June 8, according to the tender document.
Only companies that have operated LNG tankers for at least 10 years will be accepted, according to the document.
"It has to be an international tender," Lin Cheng-hsiung (
Bidders may come from Japan, South Korea or Europe, Lin said, declining to name any potential partners.
CPC plans to pick a winner "as soon as possible," he said, without elaborating.
Taiwan Maritime Transportation Co (台灣海陸) is interested in bidding for the contract, said Danny Wang, a spokesman for the Taipei-based shipping company, which operates about 55 vessels.
CPC has plans to set up two companies with the successful bidder, Lin said.
The first joint venture, in which Qatar Gas Transport Co is also taking a stake, will acquire four LNG tankers, while the second will operate the vessels to ship the fuel from Qatar, Lin said.
Qatar Gas Transport is the largest shipper of liquefied natural gas in the Middle East.
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],”
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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