Kaohsiung Harbor management vowed yesterday to boost productivity as a report showed that although Kaohsiung retained its title as the world's sixth-busiest container port last year, it is quickly losing its competitiveness.
"We will try to boost our efficiency, cut shipping lines' cost and increase the number of trans-shipment containers," Harbor Master Huang Kuo-ying (
"Our target for 2006 is 10 million TEUs [20-foot equivalent units], and half of them will be trans-shipment containers," he said.
Huang was responding to the Ministry of Transportation and Communication's report which warned that Kaohsiung Harbor was quickly losing its competitiveness because of Taiwan's five-decade ban on sea links with China and the expansion of foreign ports, especially Chinese ports.
Kaohsiung Harbor was the world's third-largest container port in 1999.
The ministry's report is based on the compilation of the world's top-30 container ports last year by the London-based Container International monthly.
According to the March issue, the container volume of all the top-30 ports -- except Kaohsiung -- rose, some by even 20 percent.
But Kaohsiung Harbor's container volume fell by 2.5 percent to 9.47 million TEUs last year, and its gap with Rotterdam Port -- which ranks seventh -- has shrunk from 1.4 million TEUs in 2004 to 180,000 TEUs last year.
According to Containerisation International magazine, Singapore led the world's top-10 container ports last year with 23.19 million TEUs, followed by Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Busan.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS