■OIL
CPC to cut prices
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday it would cut this month’s prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil to reflect the declining costs of energy. Beginning today, CPC will lower the prices of household and industrial LPG by NT$5.5 per kilogram and drop those for vehicles by NT$3 per liter, the company said. Under the new adjustments, the price of LPG will be NT$22.21 per kilogram for households, NT$25.30 per kilogram for industrial users, and NT$15.5 to NT$17.50 per liter for vehicles, the company’s tallies showed. As for the price of a 20kg household gas cylinder, users will see prices drop by NT$110. CPC will also cut prices of low sulfur fuel oil by NT$4,516 per kiloliter to NT$15,397, the statement said.
■ENVIRONMENT
Ministry may reject tax
The Hualien County Government’s plan to levy carbon tax on companies that generate carbon dioxide emissions may be rejected by the Ministry of Finance, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德). The county government’s plan to levy the energy tax on fuel users by NT$50 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions generated was given a green light by the ministry during a preliminary review on Oct. 7. But in view of objection from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the finance ministry has decided to soon conduct a second review on the tax plan to clarify whether the carbon tax is a national tax or a local tax, the paper said.
■INVESTMENT
Exchange to ease policies
Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp chairman Andy Yeh (葉景成) said the exchange will allow investors to use all fair value securities, including stocks, as margin collateral for futures positions beginning on Nov. 10, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. In hedging accounts, the proportion of stocks used as part of the margin collateral will be increased to 80 percent early next year from 50 percent at present, Yeh said.
■BANKING
Susan Chang to head NGO
State-run Bank of Taiwan’s (臺灣銀行) chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) has been appointed the new head of the Asian Bankers Association, the bank said in a statement yesterday. Founded in 1981 in Taipei, the association is the biggest non-governmental organization in Asia, comprising 90 membership banks across the region, the statement said.
■BANKING
Freedom Bank shut down
Regulators have shut down Freedom Bank, a small bank located in Bradenton, Florida. It was the 17th failure this year of a federally insured bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the bank, which had US$287 million in assets and US$254 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.
■NEW ZEALAND
Wellington offers guarantees
New Zealand’s government offered wholesale funding guarantees yesterday to leading banks and financial institutions, seeking to boost their ability to attract investment in tight international credit markets. The move, announced jointly by the treasury and central bank, matched guarantees offered by other leading industrialized nations attempting to woo skittish international investors. The government had previously moved to guarantee retail deposits.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six