The Kaohsiung Harbor handled 10.27 million 20-foot containers last year, 1.9 percent less than a year earlier amid the establishment of new worldwide shipping alliances and a consolidation in the shipping industry, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported on Saturday.
The nation’s largest port, ranked the 17th-busiest container port in the world in 2016, saw its ranking improve to 13th in the first half of last year, the Liberty Times said.
It did not specify where the port stood in world rankings for the whole of last year, citing a lack of available data.
However, Kaohsiung might have seen its ranking fall two notches in the second half, overtaken by Antwerp, Belgium, and Xiamen, China, the report said.
PROUD HISTORY
The port was the world’s No. 3 container port during the 1980s, but lost its position in the top 10 in the late 2000s, due to reduced manufacturing activities in Taiwan and also because neighboring countries, especially China, boosted capacity at their ports or built new ports.
GRADUAL RETURN
Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC, 台灣港務) president Kuo Tien-kuei (郭添貴) told the Liberty Times that he was not happy with the decline in container volume at the harbor last year.
State-run TIPC is headquartered in Kaohsiung and oversees all of the nation’s international seaports.
However, sea freight traffic in Kaohsiung gradually stabilized in the second half of last year as TIPC sought to collaborate with major shippers to cope with changes in the global shipping industry, Kuo said.
NEEDED UPDATES
The port’s container wharfs need a makeover to accommodate larger cargo ships, and TIPC is working with international shipping companies and experienced port service companies to set up business at Kaohsiung Harbor’s No. 7 container terminal, Kuo said.
Once that terminal begins operations later this year, it is expected to provide high-efficiency, low-cost loading and unloading operations, TIPC said.
It is expected to attract at least NT$15 billion (US$508.1 million) in operation facilities and equipment investment, the corporation said.
CLIENTS’ RIGHTS: Banking Bureau Deputy Director-General Lin Chih-chi said the buyer and Citibank Taiwan would need to disclose changes to branch operations DBS Bank Taiwan (星展台灣), the local unit of Singapore-based DBS Group Holdings Ltd, has reportedly won a bid to acquire Citibank Taiwan Ltd’s (花旗台灣) consumer banking business, but the two companies declined to confirm the report yesterday. Citibank Taiwan’s consumer banking business is to be sold for about NT$60 billion (US$2.17 billion) to DBS Taiwan, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported on Sunday. DBS Taiwan and its parent company are expediting the negotiations with the seller’s US-based parent company, while other local bidders, including Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) and Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), have dropped their bids, the report said. Citibank
‘BULLISH YEAR AHEAD’: The contract chipmaker set a growth target of up to 29 percent, as it expects to outperform its peers in the semiconductor industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is planning to boost this year’s capital expenditure budget by about 46 percent to exceed US$44 billion, citing strong customer demand for advanced technologies used in high-performance computing (HPC) and 5G-related applications, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday. The plan marks a record spending for TSMC after the chipmaker budgeted US$30 billion for capacity expansions at home and overseas fabs last year. TSMC is planning to allocate about 80 percent of this year’s capital spending for advanced chip capacity expansion including 2-nanometer, 3-nanometer, 5-nanometer and 7-nanometer technologies. The chipmaker reiterated that it is on
Intel Corp yesterday said it has placed its first order with ASML Holding NV to purchase the semiconductor industry’s first TWINSCAN EXE: 5200 system, as the US chip giant aims to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in advancing to 2-nanometer process technology. The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker’s TWINSCAN EXE:5200 system is an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) high-volume production system with a high numerical aperture (NA) that can produce 220 wafers per hour, more than the 150 wafers that its previous generation TWINSCAN EXE:5000 system can handle. ASML aims to launch the new system in 2024. ASML president and chief
Siltronic AG cast doubt on a planned US$5.3 billion takeover by GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), saying the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action’s feedback so far was opaque and offered no clear resolution on how to win approval for the deal. During recent discussions, the companies did not receive any information as to whether and under which conditions a clearance for the takeover might be issued, the German company said in a regulatory filing on Friday following a news report on remedies the companies have offered. In the ministry’s view “in this case, a mitigation agreement is apparently not suitable
RSS