A senior navy officer yesterday questioned a local ship builder’s capability to build submarines, saying the company’s briefing material shows it is not ready to take on such a project.
Vice Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), chief of staff of Navy Command Headquarters, was echoing Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu’s (高華柱) comment that he was not sure if local shipbuilders have the technology to build submarines for the navy.
The idea was put forth as early as 2002, but more assessments will be required because the building of submarines involves many technologies, Kao said.
In reply to lawmakers’ questions, Kao said the most basic requirement for locally built submarines is that they be able to dive and surface, and the most important thing is to ensure the safety of the navy personnel.
According to a report in the Chinese-language United Evening News, Kao described a proposal by state-run CSBC Corp, Taiwan (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) to build military submarines as “bold and muddleheaded.”
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), an expert on defense affairs, said being bold is better than being timid. CSBC should be given a chance to “start by building small submarines,” from which it will acquire the experience to produce bigger ones, Lin said.
Huang said that after reviewing data supplied by CSBC, he felt “the company’s capabilities were still insufficient.”
Kao said the Ministry of National Defense was “carefully reviewing” the CSBC proposal, which he said was “just an idea.”
The ministry has not begun to evaluate its feasibility, he said.
CSBC vice president Chen Feng-lin (陳豊霖) was angered by Kao’s description of his company’s proposal as “bold and muddleheaded,” according to the newspaper report.
“Is Kao a navy man? I don’t think so,” Chen was quoted as saying, referring to Kao’s previous service in the infantry.
While he respects the minister’s position, Chen said it must be pointed out that a group of German submarine experts expressed optimism eight years ago that CSBC would be able to build a complete submarine, including its weapons system, if the company could acquire some advanced technology in collaboration with foreign companies.
“All we need is a little support and a small investment [from the government],” Chen was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
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