Amid continual complaints from consumer groups that retail gasoline prices should be cut further, state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
The nation's largest refiner in 2004 initiated a six-year investment project to build new plants and replace old pipelines, among others, in a bid to boost efficiency and the value of output, CPC vice president Tsao Mihn (
The NT$64 billion (US$1.9 billion) project will help the firm generate pre-tax profits of NT$25.4 billion to NT$31.8 billion per year, he added.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
CPC has also reduced its workforce from 25,000 to 14,680 over the past seven or eight years and slashed new employees' salaries to the same level of those provided by the privately owned Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化).
"We hope to compete with Formosa Petrochemical on the same footing by 2010 as we trim our refinery and personnel costs," he said.
Over the first nine months of the year, CPC booked accumulative losses of NT$25.7 billion, compared with a profit of more than NT$10 billion a year ago, owing to skyrocketing crude oil prices.
Tsao expects that the firm will rake in revenues of NT$700 billion this year, with losses expected to hit NT$25 billion.
He attributed the growing corporate losses to the firm's inability to fully reflect crude oil price fluctuations, as it is saddled with policy burdens to stabilize consumer prices.
"Formosa Petrochemical hiked retail gasoline rates by NT$2.4 [in August] last year when crude costs surged, but CPC cannot follow suit, as the government fears it might trigger consumer product markups," he said.
The Consumers' Foundation (
CPC on Tuesday announced that it was reducing wholesale and retail prices of gasoline and diesel oil products by NT$0.2 per liter to reflect softening global crude oil prices.
Considering the fierce competition, rival Formosa Petrochemical yesterday matched CPC's price adjustment on wholesale products at 10am, although retail rates will be left up to contracted gas stations to decide, the private firm said.
The Consumers' Foundation yesterday accused CPC of a lack of sincerity in adjusting gasoline prices and demanded that it reduce prices by NT$2.6 before adopting a floating rate system.
According to the advocacy group's figures, the price of crude oil on Monday dropped to US$59.97 per barrel, similar to the US$61 level recorded on Feb. 13, while CPC's 95-octane unleaded gasoline was selling for NT$27.2 per liter on Monday, which is still NT$2.6 higher than the price of NT$24.6 on Feb. 13.
"We don't oppose the floating rate scheme, but we strongly demand that the new measure be carried out on a fair footing," said Cheng Jen-hung (
He said a big question mark should be placed on whether CPC's corporate losses were directly linked to spikes in crude oil prices, as the firm has claimed.
The foundation urged CPC to make public its financial structures and boost operational efficiency, instead of passing on additional costs to motorists.
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