State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油), the nation's largest oil refiner, announced yesterday it would raise wholesale gasoline price NT$1.3 per liter and diesel prices NT$1.5 per liter to reflect rising oil prices.
The new rates went into effect at midnight yesterday.
The adjusted retail price for 98-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$29.10, 95-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$27.60, 92-octane unleaded gasoline is NT$26.90 and top-grade diesel oil is NT$23.90 per liter, the company said in a statement yesterday.
As soon as CPC announced its price hikes, smaller rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would increase its prices to match CPC's, effective 2am today.
Gasoline prices are very likely to climb further next week, as oil prices surged from US$56 last Monday to above US$63 on Monday -- the highest this year -- on tensions over Iran's nuclear plans and the detention of 15 British sailors.
Despite the price hikes by CPC and Formosa, state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) announced yesterday it would launch an promotional campaign to cut unleaded gasoline prices by NT$2 a liter for three days.
Starting 12am today until the end of Friday, consumers who fill up their gas tanks with unleaded gasoline at one of the nation's 68 Taisugar gas stations will get a discount of NT$2 per liter, Taisugar said in a statement yesterday.
Taisugar's discounted price tag is NT$27.10 for 98-octane unleaded gasoline, NT$25.60 for 95-octane unleaded gasoline and NT$24.90 for 92-octane unleaded gasoline.
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
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