CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it would lower gasoline and diesel prices for a second consecutive week by NT$0.5 per liter, effective today.
The price cuts reflect a downward pressure on international crude oil prices due to Libya’s resumption of production at its biggest oil field, Sharara, and market doubts over the effectiveness of output cuts by OPEC, the state-owned refiner said in a statement.
RISING US OUTPUT
Increasing oil production in the US has also depressed prices and threatens to weaken the impact of OPEC’s cuts.
CPC said its average crude oil costs last week fell US$2.04 per barrel from the previous week to US$50.33 per barrel.
Taking into account the New Taiwan dollar’s appreciation of NT$0.199 against the US dollar, CPC said it would cut wholesale prices for diesel and gasoline products by 3.62 percent, which translates into a decrease of NT$0.5 per liter for both gasoline and diesel.
Prices at the pump are to be NT$21.3 per liter for super diesel, NT$23.7 per liter for 92-octane unleaded gasoline, NT$25.2 per liter for 95-octane unleaded gasoline and NT$27.2 per liter for 98-octane unleaded gasoline, CPC said.
SPECULATION
Privately run Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) on Saturday announced similar cuts.
Formosa in a press statement said that market speculation that Russia would likely increase its oil production after an extension of OPEC-led supply cuts affected market sentiment last week.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure