Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台電) received official notice from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday morning ordering a restart of work on the Fourth Nuclear Plant Plant (核四).
The notice coincided with the first official request by General Electric Corp (GE), which is building the two 1,350-megawatt reactors in a US$1.8 billion contract, for an undisclosed amount of compensation for the three-month delay.
The economic ministry acted swiftly, not waiting for official notice from the Cabinet to order Taipower back to work, with officials saying the ministry would shoulder "full responsibility" for the order.
It is likely the ministry was trying to minimize already staggering losses to Taipower -- estimated at NT$6.5 million per day. Another likely motivation was a desire to restate its authority over state-run Taipower after dragging its feet in responding to requests by the utility for instructions on how to handle a potential exodus of contractors as they began to bail in the closing weeks of the delay.
After receiving notice, Taipower workers at the Kungliao site began immediately to prepare for the full resumption of construction work, which according to Taipower President Kuo Chun-huei (郭俊惠) will take three months, according to the Central News Agency.
Kuo, who spoke at a breakfast meeting hosted by lawmakers from the People First Party also said that how or whether Taipower should shoulder the losses incurred by suspension of the project can only be decided after Taipower completes negotiations with its contractors.
PFP legislators have said that the losses should not be shouldered by Taipower, adding that it should be covered by government appropriations or by those who made the decision to scrap it in the first place, said CNA.
US-based GE became the first of the foreign contractors to submit a request for compensation for losses incurred during the three-month delay, Taipower executives confirmed yesterday. GE had submitted a detailed list of costs incurred by the delay to the utility, said Taipower executives, who declined to put a dollar figure to the request.
Compensation demands from domestic contractors are set to come thick and fast from all domestic contractors and together with losses on interest for loans and lost operating time for the plant may cost Taipower upwards of NT$2.8 billion, according to local media.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
RSS