Dozens of foreign and Taiwanese companies, including Lockheed Martin and Detyens Shipyards of the US and BAE of the UK, are vying to buy a stake in China Shipbuilding Corp (CSC, 中船), which wants to be privatized before 2009, a company official said yesterday.
Lockheed Martin, Detyens Shipyards and US banks are bidding through an agent called MPH, Chen Li-lin, chief of CSC's Planning Department, told reporters by phone.
"BAE has also shown interest in buying our stake. Domestic potential bidders include the China Steel Corp (中鋼), Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明) and Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海)," he said.
CSC wants to invite international tenders for the stake-release in the first quarter next year.
The state-run CSC is the country's largest shipyard. It has built container ships and bulk carriers for domestic and foreign clients and has built frigates with US design and weapons systems for the navy.
But CSC ran into the red in the 1990s due to mismanagement and too many workers.
In 2001, it laid off 2,400 workers and began its privatization process.
The government holds a 98 percent stake in the company. CPC wants to cut the government stake to between 34 percent and 49 percent of its total stake.
Local and foreign companies have shown a strong interest in buying CSC shares because the company has begun to make profits due to the recovery of the global shipbuilding market.
Last year its net profit hit NT$230 million (US$15.5 million) and is expected to reach NT$700 million.
"We have enough orders to keep us busy until the end of 2007. So we are optimistic about our future," Chen said.
While continuing to build container ships and bulk carriers, CSC hopes to also build car carriers, crude oil tankers and other products carriers, as well as small naval ships.
"We hope to have the capability to maintenance submarines," Chen said.
CSC has 2,700 workers with the main shipyard in Kaohsiung and a smaller one in Keelung.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS