Taiwan’s major bulk shippers are sticking with their fleet upgrade strategies — aimed at long-term profitability — shrugging off negative sentiment in the bulk shipping industry this year, which they see as a short-term headwind, company executives said.
U-Ming Marine Transport Corp (裕民航運), which is part of the Far Eastern Group (遠東集團), on Thursday announced it would take delivery of a capesize bulk carrier built by Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding Co (上海外高橋造船).
It is the ninth vessel of the 12-ship order U-Ming placed to the Chinese shipbuilder in 2012 — aimed at reinvigorating its fleet and improving energy efficiency.
“Although the bulk shipping industry is still facing challenges this year, U-Ming is maintaining its strategy of ordering ships during turbulent periods in the industry which enables it to negotiate a better price,” the company said in a statement.
U-Ming has added 16 new bulk vessels and eliminated eight old ones since 2012, with another eight new ships due to join the fleet by the end of 2017, aimed at raising the company’s cost efficiency and profitability.
The company saw consolidated sales in the first quarter decline 10.32 percent from the same period last year to NT$1.9 billion (US$61.78 million), stock exchange data show.
Wisdom Marine Group (慧洋海運集團), the other major bulk shipper in Taiwan, is maintaining a similar strategy during a challenging time for the industry.
Wisdom Marine, which has a fleet of 104 vessels, plans to take delivery of five new ships over the rest of the year, with the company already having signed long-term contracts to lease the ships to major global charterers to ensure profitability.
Wisdom Marine posted pre-tax profits of NT$532.95 million, or NT$1.1 per share, in the first quarter of the year, down 11.11 percent from the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
However, according to Capital Investment Management (群益投顧), the oversupply issue might continue to be the bulk shipping industry’s major uncertainty this year, with weak demand from China also dragging down the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) — which tracks the costs of transporting dry commodities such as coal, iron ore and grain across 20 shipping routes.
The BDI dropped 0.68 percent to close at 587 points on Friday, with the index already showing a 24.94 percent decline for this year, an indication that low prices might continue to impact major global bulk shippers’ business this year, Capital Investment added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the