Fuel prices in Taiwan will fall for the fourth consecutive week in response to a drop in international crude oil prices last week, the nation’s two major refiners said yesterday.
The price of gasoline and diesel will be lowered by NT$0.7 and NT$0.8 per liter respectively from today, state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) said.
After the drop, the biggest this year, prices at CPC gas stations nationwide would be NT$28.5 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$30 for 95 unleaded and NT$32 for 98 unleaded, while super diesel would be NT$26.5 per liter, it said.
Privately run Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced matching price cuts, with prices at its gas stations to be NT$28.5 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$29.9 for 95 unleaded, NT$32 per liter for 98 unleaded and NT$26.2 for super diesel.
The refiners said the price cuts reflect falling crude oil prices on the international market, due to peak output from OPEC and Russia, and an easing of US sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
A majority of OPEC and allied oil exporters support a cut in the global supply of crude, Oman Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi said yesterday in Abu Dhabi, where an oil market monitoring committee was held.
“Many of us share this view,” al-Rumhi said when asked about the need for a cut.
Asked if it could amount to 500,000 or 1 million barrels per day, he replied: “I think it is unfair for me to throw numbers now.”
“We need a consensus,” al-Rumhi said, indicating that non-OPEC member Russia would need to approve any decision.
Oman is also not a member of OPEC.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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