Taiwan and Germany should work together to boost their logistics firms, as both nations provide reliable port facilities that keep global supply chains running, the German Trade Office Taipei said in a report last week.
The office unveiled the report at a seminar in Taipei on the trends in the logistics industry in Taiwan and Germany.
Representatives and industry experts shared their views on industrial trends, with a focus on business opportunities in Hamburg for Taiwanese logistics companies.
Taiwan and Germany, which this year ranked 27th and first in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index respectively, have some of the world’s busiest port facilities, highlighting the convenience and efficiency of freight handling provided by the two countries, the report said.
The Port of Kaohsiung, the nation’s largest container port, was last year ranked the world’s 15th-busiest, handling more than 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), the report said, adding that it was closely followed by Germany’s largest port, the Port of Hamburg, which ranked 18th, handling almost 9 million TEU.
That makes Taiwan and Germany natural partners in the logistics industry, and cooperation between the two sides’ logistics companies offers mutual benefits, German Trade Office Taipei executive director Axel Limberg said.
“As Germany is leading in logistics performance and Taiwan is looking to modernize its logistics infrastructure, exchange of experience will not only enable bilateral firms to learn from each other, but also strengthen the economic ties between Germany and Taiwan,” Limberg said, adding that Taiwan relies on a well-functioning logistics industry to drive its economy.
Taiwanese authorities have been promoting the nation’s logistics industry and have invested in its expansion, modernization and adoption of related infrastructure, the report said.
The industry is important for the manufacturing sector and plays a crucial role in meeting the rapidly growing demand to deliver products purchased online, it said.
The use of smart technology would gain prevalence to help reduce turnaround and delivery time, as well as facilitate tracking, it said.
As maritime logistics infrastructure has great significance in foreign trade for an island nation, harbors should be transformed into integrated transportation hubs if the government is serious about developing Taiwan into a regional hub in Southeast Asia, the report said.
Taiwan is Germany’s fifth-largest trading partner in Asia, while Germany is the most important trading partner for Taiwan in the EU, the report said, adding that bilateral trade last year reached US$15.6 billion.
Hamburg plays a vital role in Taiwanese-German trade due to its favorable location in central Europe and as a gateway to Scandinavia as well as the emerging markets in the Baltic region, it said.
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
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
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