Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to remain unchanged from last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday, despite a fall in international crude prices last week.
Gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to remain at NT$29.6, NT$31.1 and NT$33.1 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while the price of premium diesel fuel is to stay at NT$28.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$28 at Formosa pumps, the companies said.
CPC said it calculates its weekly fuel prices based on a weighted oil price formula that comprises 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent.
Based on that mechanism, CPC’s gasoline and diesel prices should have increased by NT$2.2 and NT$2.54 per liter this week respectively. However, CPC said it would absorb the cost changes to comply with a government policy of keeping domestic fuel prices lower than in major neighboring markets, as well as to keep consumer prices stable during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Formosa followed CPC after taking into account trends in the global oil market, the exchange rate for the New Taiwan dollar and fierce competition in the domestic market.
The companies’ moves were against market trends, as global crude oil prices posted a weekly decline last week, ending four straight weeks of gains, after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping plans to boost domestic oil production while reiterating his call for OPEC to bring down oil prices, Reuters reported on Friday.
Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures fell 3.53 percent last week to US$74.66 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent decreased 2.83 percent to US$80.79 per barrel at London’s ICE Stock Exchange.
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet (EUV) pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is aiming to expand revenue to NT$10 billion (US$304.8 million) this year, as it expects the artificial intelligence (AI) boom to drive demand for wafer delivery pods and pods used in advanced packaging technology. That suggests the firm’s revenue could grow as much as 53 percent this year, after it posted a 28.91 percent increase to NT$6.55 billion last year, exceeding its 20 percent growth target. “We usually set an aggressive target internally to drive further growth. This year, our target is to
The TAIEX ended the Year of the Dragon yesterday up about 30 percent, led by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). The benchmark index closed up 225.40 points, or 0.97 percent, at 23,525.41 on the last trading session of the Year of the Dragon before the Lunar New Year holiday ushers in the Year of the Snake. During the Year of the Dragon, the TAIEX rose 5,429.34 points, the highest ever, while the 30 percent increase in the year was the second-highest behind only a 30.84 percent gain in the Year of the Rat from Jan. 25, 2020, to Feb.
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS