U-Ming Marine Transport Corp (裕民航運), a member of the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), yesterday placed an order with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co (上海外高橋造船) to build 10 capesize vessels, the company said in a stock exchange statement.
Taipei-based U-Ming Marine’s business mainly focuses on shipping bulk raw materials, such as iron ore, coal, grains and cement, while Shanghai Waigaoqiao is a unit of state-owned China Shipbuilding Trading Co (中國船舶工業貿易), with its headquarters in Beijing.
The company’s plan to spend up to US$500 million on new ships comes as the price of new dry-bulk vessels slid to an eight-year low and major shipbuilders in Asia are offering discounts to woo new customers in the face of an industrial slump.
U-Ming Marine president C.K. Ong (王書吉) said in September last year that he expected this year to be a “difficult year” for the dry-bulk market because of the launch of more large ships and higher iron-ore production in China.
However, the imbalance between supply and demand in shipping capacity had recently improved slightly as the pace at which aging ships are retired had accelerated, while the addition of new ships had slowed, the Chinese-language United Evening News quoted Ong as saying yesterday.
U-Ming Marine said in the statement that it had ordered four 186,300 long deadweight tonnage (DWT) capesize vessels from Shanghai Waigaoqiao, with an option for orders of six more, according to the statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The capesize vessels will be built for U-Ming Marine Transport (Singapore) Private Ltd (裕民航運[新加坡]私人有限公司), with each ship expected to cost US$49.83 million, the company said, adding that delivery for the first four vessels was scheduled to start in 2014.
“The purpose of the shipbuilding plan is to retire aging ships from the company’s fleet and help develop new business,” U-Ming Marine said.
According to data collected by Clarkson, the world’s largest shipbroker, the price of a new capesize ship fell to US$47.5 million this month, compared with US$48 million last month and marked the lowest level since October 2003, when the price was US$43.5 million.
The price of capesize vessels, which account for about 40 percent of the world’s dry-bulk fleet capacity, declined 14 percent over the past year, Clarkson said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the