CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said it would not raise gasoline and diesel prices again this year, despite rising international oil prices, to help keep domestic price levels stable.
The state-owned oil refiner normally adjusts its prices at the pump weekly depending on fluctuations in global crude oil markets.
Had it done the same this week, fuel prices would have reached their highest level since October 2014, the company said.
The company initially announced that it would increase prices by NT$0.5 per liter, even though they should have risen by NT$1.2 per liter based on its standard formula, and it would absorb the difference to help keep commodity prices in check.
However, at about noon, the company backtracked, and said it would cap prices at the current level until the end of this year.
It did not explain the sudden change of heart, other than to say it was worried about the impact of higher fuel prices on inflation.
However, CPC vice president Huang Jen-hung (黃仁弘) denied the move had anything to do with politics.
The decision came about seven weeks ahead of the nine-in-one elections on Nov. 24.
Domestic fuel prices have risen for seven weeks in a row after global crude prices soared 18.57 percent from US$70.61 per barrel on Aug. 20, CPC said.
Huang estimated it will cost the company an estimated NT$300 million (US$9.73 million) to absorb the full brunt of the fuel price hike for the coming week.
However, he said it would be difficult to estimate the cost of to the company of keeping the cap in place to the end of the year, because of the unpredictable nature of global oil prices.
Huang would only say that CPC hopes oil prices will remain stable in the short term to limit its losses.
Investors and analysts are beginning to anticipate the possibility that oil will hit US$100 a barrel during the peak winter demand period — which runs from late this year to early next year — the firm said.
Oil-producing countries and OPEC members see US$70 to US$80 per barrel as an ideal price range and could increase production to keep prices in that range, CPC said.
Privately run Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said it would also keep its fuel prices for this week unchanged in line with the government’s policy to help stabilize commodity prices.
However, it would have to evaluate whether it could maintain a price freeze to the end of the year, Formosa executive vice president Lin Keh-yen (林克彥) said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS