State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) yesterday announced that it would lower gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.1 per liter, effective today.
The price cuts reflect last week’s weakness in international crude oil prices, due to concerns over higher US crude production and the weak market outlook for next year, CPC said in a statement, adding that the average cost of its crude oil per barrel last week fell from US$60.19 to US$59.39.
Fuel prices at CPC gas stations are to fall to NT$26.3, NT$27.8 and NT$29.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.1 per liter.
Privately owned refiner Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced similar cuts, also effective today, with prices for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded falling to NT$26.3, NT$27.7 and NT$29.8 per liter respectively, with premium diesel retreating to NT$23.8 per liter.
Formosa said that global oil prices declined in a week of volatile trading.
Oil prices moved down earlier last week following a marked fall in the global equity market, but prices pared losses as market sentiment improved on a supply disruption from production in Libya and the International Energy Agency’s warning about a possible undersupply of crude oil in the second quarter of next year, Formosa said.
The movement of oil prices in Taiwan in the short term depends on the development of global trade issues, but in the long run, oil prices are expected to rise as major oil-producing countries may agree on production cuts, CPC vice president Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) told the Central News Agency 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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained