Swancor Industry Co Ltd (上緯), which manufactures rotor resin for wind turbines and corrosion-resistant materials, yesterday inked NT$2.5 billion (US$76.85 million) financing deal to construct two wind turbines off the coast of Taiwan.
Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行) is the lead bank for the syndicated loan.
This represents Taiwan’s first financing deal in line with the Equator Principle, a benchmark in the financial industry for identifying, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in bank financed projects.
The five-year deal was between Swancor subsidiary Formosa I Wind Power Co Ltd (海洋風力發電) and a consortium of arrangers including Cathay United Bank, EnTie Commercial Bank (安泰銀行) and BNP Paribas SA.
Swancor planned to set up two exemplary offshore wind turbines in the first phase and install 30 more turbines by seeking specialized financing and interested investors.
Swancor chairman Robert Tsai (蔡朝陽) said at a signing ceremony in Taipei that 70 percent of the investment would come from financing, with its own funds making up for the remainder.
The offshore wind field in waters off the coast of Miaoli County’s Zhunan Township (竹南) led by Swancor is expected to reach NT$20 billion in total capital investment, Cathay Financial president Lee Chang-ken (李長庚) said.
“I hope more banks will join us in investing in green energy in Taiwan,” Lee said.
Tsai said that he is disappointed that no state-owned banks participate in the loans, as construction projects like wind power merit everyone’s attention.
The incoming Democratic Progressive Party administration has set a goal of making sources of renewable energy generate 50 billion kilowatt hours of power annually by 2025, stricter than a previous plan of 40 billion kilowatt hours annually by 2030.
“The new government must think of a way to fill the gap,” an official at Swancor said, adding that the company would accommodate the government’s goal.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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