State-run Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC, 臺灣港務公司) signed agreements yesterday with 18 companies that have pledged to invest a combined total of NT$55.4 billion (US$1.89 billion) in Taiwan’s major harbors.
TIPC said the investments are expected to create about 5,600 jobs and generate NT$30.6 billion in tax revenues over the next two to three years.
The 18 companies, from the shipping, logistics, manufacturing and international trade sectors, include Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), China Petrochemical Development Corp (中石化) and state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油), TIPC officials said.
China Petrochemical Development, one of the world’s top five producers of caprolactam, is planning to invest more than NT$35 billion, the largest single investment, to build artificial fiber and plastics production facilities in a petrochemical park at Taichung Port in central Taiwan, officials said.
Evergreen Marine, the country’s largest shipping company, will pour funds into Kaohsiung Port in southern Taiwan to improve its facilities with the aim of using the harbor as an operations hub.
However, the officials did not disclose financial details about the Evergreen investment.
Meanwhile, TIPC said cargo volume handled by Taiwan’s four major harbors — the ports of Keelung, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien — in the first 10 months of this year rose 4.13 percent from a year earlier to 11.59 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Cargo volume handled by the four harbors for cross-strait trade during the same period rose 8.52 percent from a year ago to 1.76 million TEUs, the operators said.
TEUs are the measurement of cargo capacity on container ships or at container terminals.
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