The Evergreen Group (長榮集團) has placed an order with CSBC Corp, Taiwan (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) to build 10 container vessels for US$1.03 billion with delivery set to start in the fall of 2013 or earlier, both firms said in separate statements yesterday.
Evergreen Group has ordered 20 similar vessels costing about US$2 billion from Samsung Heavy Industries Co since July last year.
Evergreen Group vice -chairman Bronson Hsieh (謝志堅) and CSBC chairman Paul Tang (譚泰平) signed the contract at the former’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday morning.
Photo: CNA
The deal came after a year and a half of courting on the part of the state-run shipyard after it lost two similar orders to South Korean rival Samsung Heavy Industries in July and September last year.
“The order of L-class, 8,000-TEU environmentally advanced vessels is part of the Evergreen Group’s new shipbuilding program,” said the conglomerate, whose members include Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the nation’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest shipper.
It is the first time the ocean carrier has placed an order with CSBC since 1997, according to Evergreen’s statement.
As with the previous two orders, the latest 10 ships will have an overall length of 334.8m, a beam of 45.8m and a maximum draft of 14.2m, the group said.
With fuel-saving features and highly efficient operation, the vessels are designed to provide shippers with an upgraded delivery service as well as reduced carbon emissions, the group added.
Three of the new vessels will be built for Evergreen Marine, four for Evergreen Marine (UK) Ltd, and the remaining three for Evergreen Marine (Singapore) Ltd the statement said, adding all would be used for global services on different routes.
Evergreen Group chairman Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) said last year that Evergreen Marine would spend more than US$5 billion to add 100 ships to its current fleet of 81.
In addition to its 81 container ships, Evergreen charters another 69.
CSBC declined to comment on potential earnings the order may generate. A CSBC official said anonymously the ongoing appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar may wipe out any profits given the terms agreed on.
“CSBC secured the order at the same prices in US dollars as Samsung Industries won the two orders last year,” the official said by telephone yesterday. “The gains in the NT dollar will eat away at profits.”
Shares of CSBC rose 1.73 percent to NT$29.35, while those of Evergreen Marine fell NT$1.73 percent to NT$25.5 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS