Oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) reported higher earnings for the first half of this year than the other three companies operated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, thanks mainly to higher global crude oil and petrochemical raw material prices.
CPC’s pretax profit was NT$29.4 billion (US$962.17 million), a significant increase of 70.34 percent from NT$17.26 billion a year earlier, according to the latest data compiled by the ministry’s State-Owned Enterprise Commission.
The other three companies under the ministry’s supervision saw lower earnings, with Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) reporting NT$3.31 billion in pretax profit in the first six months of this year on gains from a land sale and Taiwan Water Corp (Taiwater, 台水) posting NT$222 million in pretax profit, while Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) reported a loss of NT$24 billion, widening from a loss of NT$7.1 billion over the same period last year, the data showed.
Taipower spokesman Hsu Tsao-hua (徐造華) attributed the widening loss to rising fuel prices and the higher costs of gas-fired power generation.
In related news, CPC announced that it would today cut gasoline prices by NT$0.2 and diesel prices by NT$0.3 per liter to reflect a decline in international crude oil prices last week.
The adjustment ended two weeks of price hikes, as rising concern over the US-China trade dispute affected market sentiment last week, CPC said in a statement.
Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said it would match CPC’s price cuts, effective today, citing reports that Libya might resume crude oil exports and the US might ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day