State-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said yesterday that it would not fully reflect the steep rise in global fuel costs when it raises electricity prices by between 10 percent and 20 percent on July 1, in order to lessen the impact on the economy.
As the implementation of higher summer electricity prices from next month to September approaches, the Cabinet said in its written statement yesterday that Taipower could only raise its electricity prices by one-fourth of what it needed to adjust on July 1, and increase to one half on Oct. 1.
“Based on Taipower’s current estimation, the level of price hike would exceed 10 percent, but no more than 20 percent on July 1,” Huang Huei-yu (黃惠予), deputy director of Taipower’s department of public relations, said yesterday.
“But Taipower’s exact price hike cannot be determined until CPC Corp, Taiwan [CPC, 台灣中油] announces its price adjustments on June 1,” Huang said.
Taipower’s losses will total NT$46.6 billion (US$1.5 billion) at the end of this month, which Huang said would surge above NT$100 billion by the end of this year, as the company will not fully reflect the rise in fuel costs.
Based on an average 318 kilowatt hours that the nation’s households used per month last year, average homeowners will likely have to pay NT$30 to NT$50 per month more for electricity in July, Huang said.
Taipower posted a 10 percent gain in sales last month compared with a year earlier as the company sold 15.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, the utility said in a newsletter.
Electricity sales at Taipower increased an average 4.4 percent annually over the past five years, the company said on its Web site.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY BLOOMBERG
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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