CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that they would lower domestic diesel prices this week but leave gasoline prices unchanged from last week.
In separate statements, state-run CPC and privately owned Formosa said that they would lower diesel prices by NT$0.1 per liter, effective today, following price increases of NT$0.1 per liter for gasoline and diesel the previous week.
Global crude oil prices moved slightly lower last week, as trading was thin over the New Year holiday and due to the effect of geopolitics in the Middle East, CPC said.
Based on its floating oil price formula and factoring in the appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar last week, domestic fuel prices should decrease by 0.62 percent this week, CPC said, adding that it therefore decided to keep gasoline prices unchanged but lower diesel prices by NT$0.1 per liter.
After the adjustments, prices at CPC gas stations are to be NT$27.7 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$29.2 for 95-octane unleaded and NT$31.2 for 98-octane unleaded, while premium diesel is to decrease to NT$25.6 per liter, the firm said.
Prices at Formosa gas stations are to be NT$27.7, NT$29.1 and NT$31.2 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded respectively, while premium diesel is to fall to NT$25.4 per liter.
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