The Taichung Port has surpassed the Keelung Port to become the nation’s second-largest, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said on Tuesday, citing statistics from harbor bureaus.
Taichung Harbor Bureau statistics showed that the total cargo handled at that port topped 90.7 million tonnes for the first time this month.
Kaohsiung Port, which handles about 381 million tonnes of cargo per year, is the nation’s largest seaport
Keelung Port handles about 63.5 million tonnes of cargo per year. Part of the cargo previously handled at Keelung Port is now processed at Taipei Port instead. The Taipei facility was opened in 2003.
The ministry said the total cargo handled reached 88.6 million tonnes between January and last month, registering 21 percent growth compared with same time last year. The total containers handled also grew by 13.92 percent.
The analysis from Taichung’s harbor bureau showed that several types of cargo have seen strong growth this year. Cement rose by 21.44 percent to more than 432,700 tonnes. Petrochemical products and liquefied natural gas increased by 66.82 percent to 2.2 million tonnes. The most extraordinary growth was seen in the automobile industry, which rose by 105.89 percent.
Meanwhile, the huge amount of land owned by Taichung Port has drawn 59 companies to invest in the port, with total investment topping NT$457.5 billion (US$15.3 billion). Thirty firms have also established operations in its free-trade zone.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS