Taisugar opens new stations
After five years of efforts, Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) opened a new gas station in Gangshan (岡山), Kaohsiung County, and one in Taipao (太保), Chiayi County, yesterday to tap into neighboring traffic flows. The state-run company said yesterday it would have four promotions from now until Dec. 10 to attract business to these strategic locales.
The two openings will add to the company’s gas stations throughout the country.
“The new Gangshan location will service customers traveling to and from Kaohsiung and Tainan. This completes Taisuar’s country mapping,” Roger Lo (羅基聰), chief executive officer of Taisugar’s petroleum business division, said in a statement.
“The Gangshan station is right next to Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (台灣高鐵) Chiayi Station to service passengers commuting to the station,” he said.
The promotions include price reductions, bonus points, bicycle giveaways and discounts on Taisugar food products.
CPC wants end to subsidy
State-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) urged the government yesterday to scrap the subsidy CPC offered to heavy consumers such as taxi drivers after the company’s losses expanded to NT$83.2 billion (US$2.53 billion) in the first 10 months of this year.
To ease growing inflation pressure this year amid rising oil price, CPC was requested to pay NT$3.1 per liter for heavy gasoline consumers.
CPC hopes the government will remove this subsidy program by Nov. 27 and restore market mechanism, as the company has been selling gasoline and other products at prices far lower than cost, the company said in a statement.
Furthermore, global oil prices have fallen sharply recently from their historical high earlier this year, said CPC, which reported losses of NT$33.55 billion in the first half of this year.
Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chi-miing (尹啟銘) is scheduled to report the new price cut plan for gasoline and liquid gas today.
Financial sector hopeful
The financial sector expressed hope yesterday that the forthcoming cross-strait financial forum will lead to the establishment of a currency-exchange mechanism.
Representatives from the financial industry in Taiwan and China are expected to exchange views at a forum today on easing restrictions regarding banking operations and other financial services.
Former minister of finance Shea Jia-dong (許嘉棟) said he hoped the two sides could work out a currency-exchange regime that would allow them to join forces in battling the global credit crisis.
Hsu said that both central banks hold huge amounts of foreign reserves and could help each other weather capital outflows, stabilize their respective currencies through a fair exchange mechanism.
Samsung releases new phones
Samsung Electronics Co unveiled four new mobile phones for the holiday season yesterday. All four feature a metal-alloy casing.
The South Korean electronics maker collaborated with Taiwan luxury goods designer Jadis Cheng (城兆緯), founder of DesignBurg Inc (設計堡), to create a series of accessories for these mobile phones, including L878 smartphone that runs on the Symbian operating system and features a 2.4 liquid-crystal display and a 3 megapixel camera. The creations were inspired from various auspicious Chinese animals, Samsung said.
NT gains on greenback
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, rising NT$0.029 to close at NT$32.869 on turnover of US$808 million.
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