■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.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
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