CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday said it was optimistic about its repair business for this year after the shipbuilder secured NT$380 million (US$12.34) in government contracts to repair a military ship and a research vessel.
CSBC has signed an open contract to repair the Republic of China Navy’s Panshi, a fast combat support ship, with the deal covering all maintenance work for five years, CSBC president Tseng Kuo-cheng (曾國正) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
An open contract is an agreement in which terms and clauses can be changed or modified without mutual consent among the signatories.
“Usually there is no settled price in an open contract, but the Ministry of National Defense has made it clear that the repair budget for the Panshi would stand at NT$280 million,” Tseng said.
CSBC, which began work on the 20,000-tonne vessel in 2012, delivered the ship in 2015.
The company rarely signs open contracts, but won this one after the ministry said it was better that the ship’s builder do the repairs, Tseng said.
It was unclear what maintenance the ship needs this year, but CSBC expects to book steady revenue over the next five years, he said, adding that work would be done at its Kaohsiung facilities.
CSBC, the nation’s only listed shipbuilder, this month also signed a contract with the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute to repair the agency’s first fisheries research vessel, Tseng said.
“We did not see many rivals for the tender, as it is not easy to repair a 25-year-old vessel,” he said.
CSBC would need to complete the work at its Keelung facilities by the end of this year, he said.
“Overall, we have had a good beginning to the year and hope to win more repair contracts,” Tseng said.
Although maintenance only contributes 3 percent to 5 percent to CSBC’s overall revenue, the gross margin from such work is quite good, he said.
Meanwhile, CSBC said Orsted A/S had not notified it to suspend a contract to develop pin piles for offshore wind projects.
The Danish firm this month announced it was suspending its offshore wind projects in Taiwan after failing to receive an establishment permit for projects off the Changhua County coast and was unable to secure a power purchase agreement at last year’s feed-in tariff rate.
Separately, CSBC said that it would raise NT$2.25 billion in fresh funds to fuel development.
The company plans to issue 100 million new shares, with most of them to be purchased by a state-run institution, which it declined to specify.
The company’s state-owned stakeholders include the Ministry of Economic Affairs and China Steel Corp (中鋼).
They hold a combined 41.5 percent stake in CSBC, which would still be the largest stake after CSBC’s scheme is completed, the company said.
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
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six