The Consumers' Foundation (
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
"CPC and Formosa Petrochemical raised the pump prices again and again, telling the public that the companies are losing money from surging oil prices. But when the prices are sliding, we don't see them propose any price cuts," the foundation said.
The price of crude oil hit a historic peak of US$77.23 per barrel on July 14, and has since tumbled by 15 percent to US$65.85 per barrel on Monday, the foundation said.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were around US$75 per barrel when CPC and Formosa hiked the gasoline prices the last time in July. The WTI for delivery next month closed down US$0.64 at US$65.61 per barrel on Monday.
As a wholly government-owned refinery, CPC is under the control of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which in February set six principles as a guideline for CPC to adjust gasoline prices.
The foundation said that the firm was ignoring one of those principles, which was to "lower the rates in time when international oil prices fall."
"Although the price of crude oil has dropped, our costs are still higher than our retail prices," Liao Tsang-long (廖滄龍), deputy director of CPC's public relations division, said in a phone interview.
"We have not yet fully passed on those costs to wholesale prices," Liao said.
For the first eight months of the year, CPC accumulated a loss of NT$25.4 billion (US$771.71 million), Liao said.
CPC will closely watch the fluctuation of oil prices, which may rise again in the winter, he said.
Minster of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (
For the first eight months of the year, the nation's consumer prices climbed 1.10 percent from last year, with transportation costs -- mainly pump costs -- up 2.12 percent from a year earlier, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Sept. 5.
But Chen said that both the Bureau of Energy and CPC were drafting a new mechanism for oil prices, which they hoped to conclude soon and announce to the public.
Private rival Formosa Petrochemical, which sells 70 percent of its gasoline to overseas markets, also has no plan to cut its wholesale prices despite declining crude oil prices, said Matiz Lin (林明憲), a company public relations official.
Formosa Petrochemical saw sales increase 31.97 percent to NT$55.78 billion for the first eight months of the year.
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last