Gasoline and diesel prices are to fall NT$0.1 per liter this week due to a decline in global crude oil prices last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said in separate statements yesterday.
Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC stations are to drop to NT$29.1, NT$30.6 and NT$32.6 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while the price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$26.9 per liter, the state-run refiner said in a statement.
Formosa said that its prices for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline would be NT$29.1, NT$30.6 and NT$32.6 per liter respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$26.7 per liter.
CPC said that based on its floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil fell 6 percent last week from a week earlier, as several adverse factors dented market sentiment and depressed oil prices.
“Oil prices fell last week on market rumors that OPEC and its allies plan to raise oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in December,” CPC said.
A rebound in the US dollar against a collection of major currencies in the week also contributed to the crude oil price decline, CPC said.
US gasoline inventories that rose to levels higher than expected and the news that the planned price cap on Russian oil by G7 nations could be above the current market level also caused downward pressure on crude oil prices, Formosa said.
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