The nation’s steel exports could lose competitiveness in the US market as Washington is set to impose heavy tariffs on Taiwanese goods, while sparing rival countries from unfavorable terms, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry said it has grave concerns over US-destined shipments of steel and related products which are expected to slump this year because of a 25 percent tariff, compared with US$3.73 billion recorded last year.
The US accounts for 21.5 percent of Taiwan’s steel exports valued at US$17.34 billion last year, the ministry said, adding that the figure represented 5.5 percent of overall outbound shipments, the ministry said on its Web site.
That gave Taiwan a market share of 5.6 percent in the US, the fifth-largest after China with 18.8 percent; Canada with 14.1 percent; Mexico with 9.6 percent; and South Korea with 5.9 percent, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s ranking is expected to drop to 10th place this year as the US has indicated plans to spare steel imports from Canada and Mexico the tariff and would grant South Korea a temporary reprieve, the ministry said.
Canada would grow into the largest steel exporter to the US, followed by South Korea, Mexico, Japan, Germany and China, the ministry said, adding that the US is such a big market that no steel exporter can afford to ignore it.
The government would continue efforts to seek favorable trade terms for local steel exporters, the ministry said.
More than 10 Taiwanese steel products are already subjected to countervailing duties by the US government and extra burdens would hurt the local steel industry, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association (台灣鋼鐵工業同業公會) said earlier this month.
Exports to the US include cold-rolled steel coils, coated steel rolls, welded steel pipes and cold-rolled stainless steel coils, the association said, adding that the products are mainly used in construction, automotive manufacturing and petrochemical production processes.
The latest protectionist measure would help boost US steelmakers’ production utilization rate in the short term, the association said.
In the long term, the duties could drive foreign steelmakers to move their manufacturing facilities to the US, the trade group said, adding that this would lower US demand for steel imports and weaken Taiwan’s steel industry.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
RSS