Middle East Conflict Drives Gas Prices Up; Taipower's April Loss Hits NT$4.7 Billion, Exceeding Q1

Central News Agency, Taipei, May 29. The conflict in the Middle East has driven up natural gas prices, leading to a rise in power generation costs. Taipower's latest financial report shows that the pre-tax loss for April this year was NT$4.7 billion, exceeding the Q1 loss of NT$4.3 billion. Taipower stated that CPC Corporation's increase in industrial gas prices in April led to an increase in power generation costs, and it is currently estimated that monthly fuel expenditure will increase to NT$13 billion. The company will closely monitor fuel fluctuations and adjust contingency plans. At the end of March, CPC Corporation announced that to reflect rising international gas procurement costs, it would raise natural gas prices for industrial users by 41.58% in April. Taipower announced its April financial results today, showing a pre-tax loss of NT$9 billion for the first four months of this year, with a loss of NT$4.7 billion in April alone. Taipower explained that the April loss was mainly due to CPC's 41.58% hike in industrial natural gas prices, which increased Taipower's natural gas generation fuel costs by approximately NT$10 billion. Furthermore, CPC raised natural gas prices for industrial users by approximately 9.34% again in May, raising concerns that Taipower's generation costs will continue to climb. In response, Taipower explained that it expects monthly fuel expenditure to increase to NT$13 billion and will closely monitor fuel fluctuations to adjust contingency plans. According to Taipower's latest disclosure, the accumulated loss is NT$361.9 billion, and the debt-to-asset ratio is 91.3%.