Taiwanese container shipping line Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運) has declared force majeure on a shipment to the Israeli port of Ashdod, with its Ever Cozy vessel diverted to Haifa due to safety concerns, a customer note said.
This is one of the first force majeures declared since Hamas launched attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and amid preparations by Israel’s military to launch ground operations into Gaza in retaliation.
The Ever Cozy on Tuesday was sailing toward Haifa, data from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic showed.
Photo: AFP
While the smaller Ashkelon port, which is the closest terminal to Gaza, has shut, Ashdod has remained opened with restrictions on the transport of hazardous goods, including flammable and explosive materials.
In a note to customers dated Monday, Evergreen said that it was informed about the “persisting unsafe situation” at Ashdod port since Oct. 7.
“As the situation is beyond Evergreen Line’s control, we are formally declaring force majeure,” the advisory said. “All cargoes which were originally destined for Ashdod, Israel, will be discharged at Port of Haifa, Israel. Thereafter, the subject contract of carriage is treated as terminated and all carrier’s responsibilities shall cease.”
In the latest update, Ashdod port said on its Web site that employees continued to work “at a time when the port is operating with constant siren alerts for incoming missiles.”
On Tuesday, three ships, including an oil tanker, remained at anchor waiting to enter Ashdod, while 16 ships were anchored near Haifa, the MarineTraffic data showed.
Ashdod and Haifa are vital goods gateways for Israel.
War risk insurance rates have soared more than 10-fold in the past few days to Israeli ports with growing concerns over an escalation in hostilities.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS