■OIL
CPC to cut prices
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) announced yesterday it would cut this month’s prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuel oil to reflect the declining costs of energy. Beginning today, CPC will lower the prices of household and industrial LPG by NT$5.5 per kilogram and drop those for vehicles by NT$3 per liter, the company said. Under the new adjustments, the price of LPG will be NT$22.21 per kilogram for households, NT$25.30 per kilogram for industrial users, and NT$15.5 to NT$17.50 per liter for vehicles, the company’s tallies showed. As for the price of a 20kg household gas cylinder, users will see prices drop by NT$110. CPC will also cut prices of low sulfur fuel oil by NT$4,516 per kiloliter to NT$15,397, the statement said.
■ENVIRONMENT
Ministry may reject tax
The Hualien County Government’s plan to levy carbon tax on companies that generate carbon dioxide emissions may be rejected by the Ministry of Finance, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德). The county government’s plan to levy the energy tax on fuel users by NT$50 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions generated was given a green light by the ministry during a preliminary review on Oct. 7. But in view of objection from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the finance ministry has decided to soon conduct a second review on the tax plan to clarify whether the carbon tax is a national tax or a local tax, the paper said.
■INVESTMENT
Exchange to ease policies
Taiwan Futures Exchange Corp chairman Andy Yeh (葉景成) said the exchange will allow investors to use all fair value securities, including stocks, as margin collateral for futures positions beginning on Nov. 10, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. In hedging accounts, the proportion of stocks used as part of the margin collateral will be increased to 80 percent early next year from 50 percent at present, Yeh said.
■BANKING
Susan Chang to head NGO
State-run Bank of Taiwan’s (臺灣銀行) chairwoman Susan Chang (張秀蓮) has been appointed the new head of the Asian Bankers Association, the bank said in a statement yesterday. Founded in 1981 in Taipei, the association is the biggest non-governmental organization in Asia, comprising 90 membership banks across the region, the statement said.
■BANKING
Freedom Bank shut down
Regulators have shut down Freedom Bank, a small bank located in Bradenton, Florida. It was the 17th failure this year of a federally insured bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver of the bank, which had US$287 million in assets and US$254 million in deposits as of Oct. 17.
■NEW ZEALAND
Wellington offers guarantees
New Zealand’s government offered wholesale funding guarantees yesterday to leading banks and financial institutions, seeking to boost their ability to attract investment in tight international credit markets. The move, announced jointly by the treasury and central bank, matched guarantees offered by other leading industrialized nations attempting to woo skittish international investors. The government had previously moved to guarantee retail deposits.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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