The nation’s shipbuilding sector is undergoing a renaissance, Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) said by telephone yesterday, one day after a Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) report said the sector’s production value last year surged 25.2 percent to NT$27.1 billion (US$895.87 million at the current exchange rate).
The surge was largely due to growing demand from the offshore wind energy industry and domestic submarine projects, the report said.
There was also an increase in the production of large and small container ships, with production value increasing by 35.2 percent on an annual basis to NT$19.8 billion, while yacht manufacturing output grew 9.4 percent to NT$6.4 billion, the report said.
“The sector is witnessing a renaissance mainly due to the construction of offshore wind farms and the government’s plan to manufacture naval vessels locally,” Wang said.
“Exports now make up a majority of yacht orders, with the US as Taiwanese makers’ greatest client,” she said, adding that exports last year totaled US$231.55 million, a 38 percent increase from 2018.
Local yacht makers clinched the most orders last year among Asian firms, she said, citing data from Boat International Media.
However, whether Taiwanese firms will be able to maintain the momentum amid the COVID-19 pandemic is not clear.
“The demand for container ships is likely to falter this year as wind farm developers move on to the next phase in construction... However, this might boost orders for wind turbine installation vessels and the like,” Wang said.
“What we fear is the growing volatility across international markets fostered by fears about the spread of COVID-19,” she said.
The sector might see a decline similar to that during the 2008 global financial crisis, she said.
The sector’s production plummeted 21.1 percent in 2009, to NT$38.7 billion, from NT$49.1 billion in 2008, the ministry’s data showed.
“The fall in global trade [during 2008-2009] dealt a heavy blow to the local production of container ships,” Wang said.
While it is too early to make predictions, the sector would be affected if the pandemic continues, even though production of submarines might continue as planned, she said.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
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
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
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