State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) is likely to announce another price cut on domestic gasoline and diesel products today, its third price drop this week, a company official said yesterday.
Unlike its two previous price cuts — which were made under public pressure over billions of NT dollars in air pollution fees and petroleum fund fees over the last few years — the new cut is to reflect the decline in international oil prices over the past few days, CPC vice president Lin Maw-wen (林茂文) said by telephone.
“We are calculating the range of the price cut and will make a formal announcement tomorrow [today],” Lin said.
CPC normally announces its weekly price adjustment for fuel on Sunday for the new rates to take effect the next day. The company decided to announce the new prices today because Sunday will be the first day of the Lunar New Year, Lin said.
The new rate will be effective from tomorrow, Lunar New Year’s Eve, and the company will not adjust prices until new rates are announced on Feb. 28, he added.
CPC already cut prices by a total of NT$0.5 per liter on both gasoline and diesel after two separate announcements on Monday and Tuesday. Based on the company’s floating price mechanism, the company may cut another NT$0.3 to NT$0.5 per liter after global crude oil prices have fallen by an average of US$2.80 per barrel.
The Central News Agency said, however, that the government-owned refiner could cut as much as NT$0.7 per liter, after factoring in a gap of NT$0.2 due between the new and old rates for air pollution fees and petroleum fund fees.
Lin declined to confirm the CNA report, “but the company may incur NT$100 million [US$3.12 million] in losses for every NT$0.1 drop in fuel prices,” he said.
The company made a pre-tax profit of NT$28.91 billion last year.
Private oil refiner Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), which also made a second price cut on Wednesday because of market competition, is likely to follow suit with further cuts.
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