Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽), subsidiary of Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), yesterday auctioned off a plot of land near Taipei’s bustling Ximending area for NT$1.823 billion (US$53.4 million), or NT$5.29 million per ping, to the Seasons Hotel Royal in Taipei.
The closing price was the highest unit price for a commercial-use land deal in the area, although it only represented a meager premium of 6 percent on the asking price, local realtor Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) said in a press statement.
Seasons Hotel Royal outbid two other competitors — Fubon Land Development (富邦建設) and Aegon Life Insurance (Taiwan) Inc (全球人壽) — to acquire the 344.5-ping (1,139m²) parcel of land, which is located next to Far Eastern Department Stores Ltd (遠東百貨) and close to Ximen MRT station, the statement said.
Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) said in another press statement that Fubon offered to pay NT$1.78 billion and Aegon Life Insurance offered to pay NT$1.75 billion.
LATE WITHDRAWALS
Evertrust said several developers of luxury housing projects, who would have found building a residential project on the plot of land difficult because of the neighboring commercial environment, withdrew from yesterday’s auction at the last minute.
As many as 12 bidders had earlier expressed an interest in bidding for the property, it said, but given its location, the plot of land would be perfect for a new five-star hotel project as the nation’s tourism sector continues to benefit from visiting Chinese tourists.
TOURISTS
The realtors said an estimated 1.5 million Chinese tourists may tour Taiwan this year.
Ximending is a must-visit attraction for visitors from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan Realty said.
After acquiring the plot of land, Seasons Hotel plans to build a 14-story five-star hotel, although its height will be restricted and have to be approved by the Presidential Office, which is two blocks away, for security reasons, the realtor said.
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS