The production value of the nation's shipbuilding industry is expected to amount to NT$52 billion (US$1.6 billion) this year, up 21 percent over the year-earlier level, tallies released on Thursday by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) showed.
This will mark the first time the country's shipbuilding output has topped NT$50 billion, IDB officials said, predicting that the production value will further expand to more than NT$60 billion next year.
For the first 11 months of the year, state-owned shipbuilder CSBS Corp, Taiwan (台灣中船) saw its revenue amount to NT$26.2 billion and its pre-tax net profit hit a record NT$4 billion, the officials said.
As of the end of last month, CSBC had an order backlog of NT$125.9 billion for 60 container vessels and NT$12.62 billion for 30 fast missile attack boats that will keep its Kaohsiung shipyard busy until April 2012 and its Keelung shipyard occupied until July 2011, the officials said.
CSBS has also set up a partnership with the American Bureau of Shipping to develop new Panamax-class container vessels with a capacity of 12,500 twenty-foot equivalent units, they said.
Meanwhile, the nation's largest private-owned shipbuilder -- Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co (中信造船) -- has invested an extra NT$1.75 billion to expand its existing shipyards and build new facilities this year. The firm's annual turnover is expected to rise to NT$4 billion with the project's completion, they said.
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