Taiwanese companies need to work on decarbonizing or risk being “excluded from the supply chains of the future,” the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Speaking at a forum for decarbonation organized by the Chinese National Federation Industries (CNFI, 全國工業總會), Bureau of Foreign Trade Deputy Director-General Cynthia Kiang (江文若) said that now is the time for Taiwanese companies to start preparing for requirements from countries and companies for greener supply chains and clear accounting of carbon emissions.
The EU in July announced the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), under which products produced with a large carbon footprint would face tariffs starting in 2026, Kiang said.
Photo: Lin Jin-hua, Taipei Times
The law’s primary goal is to prevent products with large carbon footprints from competing with those with low footprints made in the EU.
“The 2023 date for the beginning of implementation is extremely challenging,” Kiang said.
Although Taiwanese exports to the EU are limited compared with China, the US and other countries, the trend toward demanding better accounting of carbon emissions and tariffs for higher-carbon products would become increasingly worldwide, Kiang said.
“More important than the direct export of goods to Europe, [Taiwanese businesses] need to take notice of the carbon requirements of major international companies,” Kiang said. “Otherwise they are at risk of being excluded from the global supply chain.”
It is not just tech companies such as Google and Amazon that have made commitments to greening their supply chains, footwear brand Nike has as well, leading to Taiwanese shoemaker Pou Chen Corp (寶成工業), the world’s largest manufacturer of branded athletic and casual footwear, to commit to stopping carbon emissions growth starting in 2025, Kiang said.
“The Bureau of Foreign Trade has been assisting exporters with tracking their carbon footprints whether they are in textile or electronics,” Kiang said. “We wish to accelerate the process of international recognition for our companies as part of the circular economy.”
At the same forum, China Steel Corp executive vice president Wang Shyi-chin (王錫欽) said that the company would be looking to a foundry that uses hydrogen rather than coal to make steel.
“To reach our eventual goal of reducing carbon emissions by 20 percent, we can replace some iron ore with recycled iron scrap, replace coal with hydrogen fuel, and capture more of the gas at the top of the foundry to generate electricity,” Wang said. “By refining our procedures, we can create a lower-carbon or even eventually zero carbon steel.
China Steel hopes to reduce carbon emissions by 7 percent by 2025 and achieve carbon neutrality in the same year, in line with the government’s goal for Taiwan to be Carbon Neutral by 2025.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS