State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) is to lower pump prices for gasoline and diesel by NT$1 per liter today, due to a fall in international crude oil prices, the company said.
The price cut was taken to reflect falling international crude oil prices amid lingering concerns over a global supply glut, CPC said.
The company calculates weekly fuel prices based on a weighted oil price formula comprised of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude. Based on that formula, the price per barrel of crude oil stood at US$44.70 as of Friday, down from US$48.76 a week earlier, it said.
The international crude oil market remained volatile last week, extending losses from a week earlier due to rising concerns over OPEC’s failure to implement an output cut.
While OPEC members are scheduled to meet in Vienna on Nov. 30 to further discuss a plan to cut production in an attempt to rein in crude oil prices, market confidence of a deal being struck is weak, analysts said.
Several oil producers — including nonmembers of OPEC such as Iran, Iraq and Russia — have appeared reluctant to cut their oil production, which has made many energy traders wary and led them to bet on oil prices falling even further, analysts said.
In addition to worries over the oil cut failure, an increase in oil inventories in the US market has also made energy traders nervous, further pushing down crude oil prices, they said.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s sole privately owned fuel supplier, on Saturday announced plans to cut gasoline and diesel prices by NT$1 per liter, starting from 1am today.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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