China’s COSCO Group (中國海運集團), owner and operator of one of the largest container ships in the world, is eyeing Kaohsiung Harbor as a transshipment center to bolster transshipping and logistics services.
The 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) COSCO Oceania anchored at Kaohsiung Harbor on Wednesday after the historic inauguration of direct cross-Taiwan Strait shipping links on Monday, unloading around 50 containers and loading some 900 containers before heading for Hong Kong en route to Europe.
The COSCO Oceania, the largest container ship in Asia and one of the largest in the world, embarked from the Chinese port of Tianjin on Monday and arrived at Kaohsiung 55 hours later to become the first Chinese ship to visit a Taiwanese port via direct shipping links since 1949.
COSCO Group chairman Wei Jiafu (魏家福), who flew into Taiwan on Monday to witness the inauguration of the direct links, attended a reception at Kaohsiung Harbor yesterday and said that the COSCO Group was having an even bigger container ship built — a 13,500 TEU vessel to be named the COSCO Kaohsiung — which will ply its global routes with Kaohsiung Harbor as one of its key transshipping points.
Also speaking at the reception, Kaohsiung Harbor Administration Director-General Hsieh Ming-hui (謝明輝) said the harbor’s history would be rewritten when the COSCO Kaohsiung makes its maiden voyage to Kaohsiung Harbor in 2010.
Taiwan and China resumed daily direct passenger flights, cargo flights and shipping links on Monday. Ships can sail between 11 ports in Taiwan and 63 ports in China without being required to transit through a third region.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS