To reflect world crude prices, domestic gasoline and diesel prices will increase by NT$0.5 and NT$0.6 per liter respectively, effective today, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday.
The adjustment came as prices of crude oil gained as the US dollar dropped the most in a week against the euro on speculation the US economy will worsen, increasing the appeal of commodities as a currency hedge.
Crude oil for April delivery gained as much as US$0.88, or 2 percent, to US$44.49 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude oil for April settlement traded at US$44.10 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange.
After the adjustment, CPC’s price for a liter of 98-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$25.3, 95-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$23.8 and 92-octane unleaded gasoline will be NT$23.1. Diesel will be NT$20.3 per liter.
Rival Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced later it would match CPC’s price hikes, effective today.
Meanwhile, Formosa Petrochemical shut a fuel oil unit at Mailiao (麥寮) on March 1 for 40 days for scheduled maintenance, causing the refiner to process about 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day this month compared with 500,000 barrels last month, a company official said yesterday.
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