Public works contractors yesterday urged the government to lower the subsidy threshold amid skyrocketing raw material costs.
James Yu (余烈), spokesman for the Chinese National Association of General Contractors (CNAGC, 營造公會全國聯合會), said steel bar prices were between NT$35,000 and NT$36,000 per tonne, up from NT$12,000 to NT$15,000 per tonne two to three years ago when current contracts were signed.
The government offers subsidies when raw material prices have risen 2.5 percent from when a contract was inked. The contractors urged the government to drop the threshold to 1.25 percent.
At a press conference yesterday, Yu said each contractor bid for Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network was worth between NT$8 billion and NT$9 billion, but the cost of steel bars alone would result in a loss of up to NT$600 million — nearly twice the capital of a large construction firm.
Chu Tai-sheng (朱台森), president of the New Asia Construction & Development Corp (新亞建設開發), said nearly 4,800 construction companies had closed down in the past two years.
Pan Chun-jung (潘俊榮), chairman of the Taiwan Regional Engineering Contractors Association (台灣區綜合營造公會), said the group had sought to negotiate with the government to no avail.
Contractors said they did not rule out the possibility of going on strike.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”