Taiwan has rarely been regarded as a yachting destination on the world map, but it is believed to have potential for domestic yacht sales, as an increasing number of Taiwanese are becoming interested in yachting.
Taiwan’s yacht manufacturing industry is on the rise, said Han Pi-hsiang (韓碧祥), founder and CEO of the Greater Kaohsiung-based Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Corp (中信造船), who has been a strong supporter over the years of government plans to build yachting marinas.
SHOW STEALER
Photo: CNA
An exclusive yacht built by Han’s company at a cost of NT$300 million (US$10 million) stole the show at the inauguration of a marina at the Wushi (烏石) port in Yilan County on June 23. The ship, made with top-quality materials, is Han’s sample in his bid to attract global buyers.
After visiting the 30m long yacht in Yilan, Fisheries Agency Director-General James Sha (沙志一) praised the vessel as a work of excellent craftsmanship and attention to detail. He was particularly impressed by the marble floor, which he said is thinner than normal.
Han said he had already sailed the yacht to Qingdao, Shanghai and Hainan in China, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, to take part in yacht expositions to promote Taiwan’s shipbuilding technology.
Having been in the business for several decades, Han said that Taiwan’s yacht-building techniques have been lifted to the “exquisite” level, but prices remain “fair” compared with European brands.
“Taiwanese work is substantive and on a par with Europe,” he said.
ECONOMIES
Optimistic about the outlook for Taiwan’s yacht industry, the veteran shipbuilder said he expects more Taiwanese to get involved with yachting — a big business in Europe, the US and Japan — thanks to the rise of Asia’s economies and the government’s relaxation of restrictions on recreational sailing along the coasts of Taiwan.
Of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) i-Taiwan 12 public construction projects aimed at stimulating the nation’s economic growth, three fishing ports — Badouzi (八斗子) in Keelung, Wushi in Yilan and Anping (安平) in Greater Tainan — have been selected as locations for new marinas to help develop yachting in the nation.
The Badouzi Port Bisha Marina was inaugurated on Sept. 21 last year, while the Anping facility is expected to open next month, Han said, adding that he will take his boat there to help promote yachting.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest smartphones carry a version of the advanced made-in-China processor it revealed last year, results from an independent analysis showed. This underscored the Chinese company’s ability to sustain production of the controversial chip. The Pura 70 series unveiled last week sports the Kirin 9010 processor, research firm TechInsights found during a teardown of the device. This is a newer version of the Kirin 9000s, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) for the Mate 60 Pro, which had alarmed officials in Washington who thought a 7-nanometer chip was beyond China’s capabilities. Huawei has enjoyed a resurgence since
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li