The appreciation of the local currency, which has risen by about 8 percent against the US dollar this year, would reduce fuel prices by about NT$1 per liter, he said.
Meanwhile, Sure Company (西歐加油站), a domestic retailer for Formosa Petrochemical, said yesterday that it would raise its gasoline and diesel prices by NT$2.8 and NT$3.1 per liter respectively today.
Sure's decision came three days after Formosa Petrochemical raised its wholesale gasoline and diesel prices by the same amount last Saturday.
The retailer said yesterday that it had lost nearly NT$2 million on 600,000 liters of fuel it sold since last Saturday, as the company had kept its fuel prices unchanged.
"Sure waited until Tuesday [today] to raise our fuel prices, as we wanted to give our regular customers a three-day grace period," a Sure executive, who wished to remain anonymous, said yesterday.
"It is inevitable that Sure would raise prices, as Formosa Petrochemical's price hike of NT$2.8 per liter of gasoline has wiped out our profit," he said.
Sure earns NT$2.5 and NT$1.3 per liter of gasoline and diesel, both lower than Formosa Petrochemical's price hikes, the company executive said.
The retailer estimated that it could lose up to 70 percent of its customers as a result of the price hikes, with losses estimated to surge to between NT$7 million and NT$8 million per month, or even as much as NT$10 million, he said.
Formosa Petrochemical said last Sunday that it would reimburse its retailers around NT$1.2 per liter of gasoline or diesel. The final amount has not yet been decided.
A similar incident occurred in 2005, when Formosa Petrochemical first raised its wholesale gasoline prices by NT$2.4 per liter in late August, prompting CPC Corp, Taiwan to raise it prices by the same amount a month later.
Sure opened the nation's first privately owned gas station in Taipei's Shilin District on Feb. 2, 1988. The retailer has nine gas stations nationwide.
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