Beginning today, both the state-owned oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), the nation’s only publicly traded oil refiner, will raise domestic gasoline and diesel prices by NT$1.5 per liter and NT$1.6 per liter respectively.
After the price hike, prices for domestic 92-unleaded, 95-unleaded, 98-unleaded gasoline and diesel will be NT$35.4 per liter, NT$36.1 per liter, NT$37.6 per liter and NT$33.5 per liter respectively.
In response to the planned price hikes, drivers yesterday lined up in front of gas stations to pump gas.
The government is sharing a portion of the burden of increasing oil prices by decreasing commodity taxes on gasoline and diesel by NT$1.3 per liter and NT$1.4 per liter respectively, while CPC will absorb NT$1.3 per liter and NT$1.4 per liter, CPC’s latest press release showed.
CPC vice president and spokesman Chu Shao-hua (朱少華), said by telephone yesterday that CPC will continue to absorb losses from increases in oil prices until the end of the year, with losses this year extimated to be around NT$85 billion.
Formosa Petrochemical figures showed that Dubai crude oil prices jumped 6.96 percent month-on-month to US$127.82 per barrel last month, from US$119.5 per barrel in May.
On May 28, after freezing domestic oil prices for seven months CPC raised domestic gasoline and diesel prices by NT$3.9 per liter and NT$4.4 per liter respectively. Formosa Petrochemical followed the next day by raising gasoline and diesel prices by NT$1.1 per liter and NT$1.3 per liter respectively.
Bureau of Energy Director-General Yeh Huey-ching (葉惠青) said that as some consumers expected oil prices to continue rising this month, the amount of fuel dispensed at CPC’s gas stations had gone up to 23 million liters per day over the past few days, up from 18.5 million liters per day, but this was still within a reasonable range.
SHARES DECLINE
Meanwhile, Taiwanese shares closed down 1.5 percent yesterday to a 16-month low partly due to Wall Street volatility, dealers said.
The weighted index closed down 115.56 points at the day’s low of 7,407.98 on thin trading volume of NT$86.06 billion (US$2.83 billion).
“Surging oil prices, which brought down Wall Street prices overnight, remained the major concern of local investors,” said Chen Yu-yu (陳育榆) of Capital Securities (群益證券).
Crude oil hit a record high of US$143.67 per barrel overnight before pulling back.
“If we can hold at 7,384 tomorrow, the market will bottom out there and rebound,” KGI Securities’ (中信證券) Randy Chang (張修華) said.
Dealers said government funds were likely to have purchased large-caps such as Formosa Petrochemical, which rose 2.1 percent to NT$81.90.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS