Amid surging oil and energy prices, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油) yesterday announced further cost cutting plans, which will jointly save another NT$1.01 billion (US$30.42 million) for the two state-run enterprises.
The two companies unveiled the plans at a meeting held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which was also attended by industry professionals and academics.
Taipower reported a loss of NT$13.6 billion for the first half of this year, as the cost of imported coal has increased significantly over the last year.
To offset surging international energy prices, Taipower had previously set a target to cut costs of NT$7.3 billion and raised the number to NT$11.5 billion later. Pursuant to discussions with industry experts, the company yesterday revealed its intention to raise the cost-cutting target once again to NT$12.4 billion.
Taipower raised its electricity rates last month, which is estimated to increase revenue by NT$12 billion this year, company chairman Edward Chen (陳貴明) said at the meeting.
To ensure stable supply of electricity, Taiwan will need to push the percentage of base load power generation from the current 47 percent to 60 percent, Chen said.
But given the government's policy to reduce dependence on nuclear power, and environmental concerns about coal generation, "this target will be very difficult to achieve, unless the government makes a concession on nuclear policy," Wu Tsai-yi (
CPC announced yesterday it will also raise its cost cutting target from NT$5.84 billion to NT$10.7 billion. The company reported a deficit of NT$21.6 billion for the first seven months of the year, despite the fact that it has raised the price of wholesale petroleum products three times since January.
CPC Chairman Pan Wenent (
The price of West Texas intermediate crude has soared to US$75 a barrel, up 80 percent from US$42 a barrel early last year, according to the ministry's latest international statistics.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last