Wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA (SGRE) yesterday unveiled its nacelle assembly facility in Taichung — the Spanish company’s first outside Europe.
After Danish energy company Orsted A/S in June placed an order of wind turbines for its 900 megawatt (MW) wind farm project off the coast of Changhua County, SGRE decided to establish a nacelle assembly facility at the Port of Taichung, for which it leased 3 hectares from Taiwan International Ports Corp’s (TIPC, 台灣港務) Taichung branch.
A nacelle is a casing that houses all of the generating components in a wind turbine.
Photo: CNA
Construction of the facility, which would include an office and storage area, as well as serve as a nacelle testing center, is expected to be completed by the end of next year, SGRE said.
Production is expected to start by 2021, the company said.
TIPC said the facility would transform the port into an international hub for offshore wind supplies in the Asia-Pacific region, and provide more than 100 job opportunities.
Wind turbine towers for the greater Changhua project would be supplied by Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co (金豐機器) and South Korea’s CS Wind Corp.
Ching Fong and CS Wind last year formed a partnership to supply towers to Denmark-based wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas Offshore Wind A/S and German wind farm developer Wpd AG.
SGRE said it would produce the Asia-Pacific variant of its SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbine at the Taichung facility, which is tailored to meet local standards regarding typhoons and seismic activitiy, and can operate in high and low ambient temperatures.
The Taichung facility would provide an opportunity for the company to reach other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, said Niels Steenberg, executive general manager of SGRE for Offshore Asia-Pacific.
SGRE provided two wind turbines for the first phase of Formosa I, Taiwan’s first offshore wind farm project, and last week revealed the first six wind turbines commissioned in the second phase of the 128MW project.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such
SENSOR BUSINESS: The Taiwanese company said that a public tender offer would begin on May 7 through its wholly owned subsidiary Yageo Electronics Japan Yageo Corp (國巨), one of the world’s top three suppliers of passive components, yesterday said it is to launch a tender offer to fully acquire Japan’s Shibaura Electronics Co for up to ¥65.57 billion (US$429.37 million), with an aim to expand its sensor business. The tender offer would be a crucial step for the company to expand its sensor business, Yageo said. Shibaura Electronics is the world’s largest supplier of thermistors, with a market share of 13 percent, research conducted in 2022 by the Japanese firm showed. If a deal goes ahead, it would be the second acquisition of a sensor business since