A senior navy officer yesterday questioned a local ship builder’s capability to build submarines, saying the company’s briefing material shows it is not ready to take on such a project.
Vice Admiral Huang Shu-kuang (黃曙光), chief of staff of Navy Command Headquarters, was echoing Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu’s (高華柱) comment that he was not sure if local shipbuilders have the technology to build submarines for the navy.
The idea was put forth as early as 2002, but more assessments will be required because the building of submarines involves many technologies, Kao said.
In reply to lawmakers’ questions, Kao said the most basic requirement for locally built submarines is that they be able to dive and surface, and the most important thing is to ensure the safety of the navy personnel.
According to a report in the Chinese-language United Evening News, Kao described a proposal by state-run CSBC Corp, Taiwan (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) to build military submarines as “bold and muddleheaded.”
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), an expert on defense affairs, said being bold is better than being timid. CSBC should be given a chance to “start by building small submarines,” from which it will acquire the experience to produce bigger ones, Lin said.
Huang said that after reviewing data supplied by CSBC, he felt “the company’s capabilities were still insufficient.”
Kao said the Ministry of National Defense was “carefully reviewing” the CSBC proposal, which he said was “just an idea.”
The ministry has not begun to evaluate its feasibility, he said.
CSBC vice president Chen Feng-lin (陳豊霖) was angered by Kao’s description of his company’s proposal as “bold and muddleheaded,” according to the newspaper report.
“Is Kao a navy man? I don’t think so,” Chen was quoted as saying, referring to Kao’s previous service in the infantry.
While he respects the minister’s position, Chen said it must be pointed out that a group of German submarine experts expressed optimism eight years ago that CSBC would be able to build a complete submarine, including its weapons system, if the company could acquire some advanced technology in collaboration with foreign companies.
“All we need is a little support and a small investment [from the government],” Chen was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
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