Tough terms of a contract to supply liquified natural gas to a power plant in northern Taiwan may force the Taiwan Power Co (Taipower,
According to Taipower executives only two bids, including one from Tuntex (
The small number of bids may force the bidding period to be extended due to similar withdrawals by foreign bidders.
Taiwan laws governing major tender offers by state-run companies stipulate that at least three bids must be received for the offer to be validated.
A spokesman for CPC yesterday confirmed that the company had not placed a bid in a tender to supply Taipower's Tatan power plant in Taoyuan for the next 25 years, but declined to state the reasons for the pull-out.
Both foreign and local companies interested in the project have previously complained that recent revisions tender's terms that would make suppliers liable to pay compensation if they were unable to deliver the gas regardless of the reason, were unreasonable.
CPC chairman Chen Chao-wei (
Pacific Construction, which had earlier looked into cooperation with British Petroleum and Indonesia's Pertamina, has also decided against bidding, according to an unidentified source quoted by BridgeNews.
Both Exxon Mobil, Shell Co and TotalFinaElf, which had eyed partnering with local companies to participate in the project, eventually shelved their bids citing the new terms were out of whack with international standards, according to local reports.
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