■OIL
CPC to cut prices
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday it would cut this month’s prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil to reflect the declining costs of energy. Beginning today, CPC will lower the prices of household and industrial LPG by NT$5.5 per kilogram and drop those for vehicles by NT$3 per liter, the company said. Under the new adjustments, the price of LPG will be NT$22.21 per kilogram for households, NT$25.30 per kilogram for industrial users, and NT$15.5 to NT$17.50 per liter for vehicles, the company’s tallies showed. As for the price of a 20kg household gas cylinder, users will see prices drop by NT$110. CPC will also cut prices of low sulfur fuel oil by NT$4,516 per kiloliter to NT$15,397, the statement said.
■ENVIRONMENT
Ministry may reject tax
The Hualien County Government’s plan to levy carbon tax on companies that generate carbon dioxide emissions may be rejected by the Ministry of Finance, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德). The county government’s plan to levy the energy tax on fuel users by NT$50 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions generated was given a green light by the ministry during a preliminary review on Oct. 7. But in view of objection from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the finance ministry has decided to soon conduct a second review on the tax plan to clarify whether the carbon tax is a national tax or a local tax, the paper said.
■INVESTMENT
Exchange to ease policies
Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp chairman Andy Yeh (葉景成) said the exchange will allow investors to use all fair value securities, including stocks, as margin collateral for futures positions beginning on Nov. 10, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. In hedging accounts, the proportion of stocks used as part of the margin collateral will be increased to 80 percent early next year from 50 percent at present, Yeh said.
■BANKING
Susan Chang to head NGO
State-run Bank of Taiwan’s (臺灣銀行) chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) has been appointed the new head of the Asian Bankers Association, the bank said in a statement yesterday. Founded in 1981 in Taipei, the association is the biggest non-governmental organization in Asia, comprising 90 membership banks across the region, the statement said.
■BANKING
Freedom Bank shut down
Regulators have shut down Freedom Bank, a small bank located in Bradenton, Florida. It was the 17th failure this year of a federally insured bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the bank, which had US$287 million in assets and US$254 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.
■NEW ZEALAND
Wellington offers guarantees
New Zealand’s government offered wholesale funding guarantees yesterday to leading banks and financial institutions, seeking to boost their ability to attract investment in tight international credit markets. The move, announced jointly by the treasury and central bank, matched guarantees offered by other leading industrialized nations attempting to woo skittish international investors. The government had previously moved to guarantee retail deposits.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS