Domestic gasoline and diesel prices in Taiwan are to move higher today as fears of a crude oil supply glut continue to ease, Taiwan’s two major suppliers said yesterday.
State-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said it is to raise gasoline and diesel prices by NT$1.1 and NT$1.2 per liter, respectively, the steepest hike in 27 months.
After the adjustments, prices at CPC gas stations are to be NT$26.1 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$27.6 per liter for 95 unleaded and NT$29.6 per liter for 98 unleaded, while the price of super diesel is to be NT$23.9 per liter.
Domestic fuel prices at CPC gas stations nationwide fell to their lowest in 15 months in the week starting on Dec. 30, when the prices were NT$24.5 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$26 per liter for 95 unleaded, NT$28 per liter for 98 unleaded and NT$22.2 per liter for super diesel.
However, following a jump in international crude oil prices, this is the second week in a row that CPC has raised its fuel prices, increasing gasoline and diesel prices by a total of NT$1.6 and NT$1.7 respectively since Sunday last week.
International crude oil prices continued to rebound last week as major oil producers, led by Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, agreed to collectively cut output.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only listed oil refiner, yesterday announced identical price increases from today, to reflect the increase in international crude oil prices.
After the adjustments, prices at Formosa Petrochemical gas stations nationwide are to be NT$26.1 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$27.5 per liter for 95 unleaded, NT$29.6 per liter for 98 unleaded and NT$23.7 per liter for super diesel, the company said.
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