Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said yesterday that the price of oil is “perfect” and that crude inventories in international markets are on the decline.
“Everything is so good now, we don’t have to think very hard,” al-Naimi told reporters in Cairo, reflecting an agreement among OPEC members to keep production quotas unchanged at a conference later this month in Angola.
Asked if he was not worried about the high level of inventories in international markets, al-Naimi said: “Of course.”
“Inventories are coming down, the price is perfect and all investors, consumers, producers are all very happy,” the oil minister of the world’s largest crude exporter said.
Al-Naimi is in the Egyptian capital to attend a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC).
On Friday, Arab oil ministers said the OPEC cartel should keep production unchanged when it meets later this month as crude prices are close to the target of US$80 a barrel.
“Why should we raise output?” al-Naimi, asked on arrival in the Egyptian capital for the OAPEC conference. “We still have time [for the meeting]. But right now, the price is okay, between US$70 and US$80. It’s close to the target that we set at US$75 a barrel.”
The oil ministers of Algeria, Libya and Qatar also supported a rollover of oil output when OPEC ministers meet on Dec. 22 in Luanda, Angola, although they said the market was over-supplied.
“OPEC should probably not change production,” at the Luanda meeting, said Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil on Friday, but he added that crude prices were slightly low.
Last year, prices slumped to just above US$30 a barrel due to the impact of the global financial meltdown, before recovering to between US$70 and US$80 at present.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS