Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC) chairman Lee Hsien-yi (李賢義) is to lead a delegation to South Korea at the end of this month to sign a sister port agreement with the Busan Port Authority, the state-owned shipping company said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Seoul-based container shipping firm HMM Co is renewing its lease with TIPC to use wharfs Nos. 76 to 78 of Cargo Terminal No. 5 in the Port of Kaohsiung for 20 years, the port company said.
The South Korean container carrier is to invest NT$4.5 billion (US$142.1 million) over the next two years to deepen the wharves to accommodate cargo ships with 24,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) capacity, the port company said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan International Ports Corp
“Because of inflation, bank interest rate hikes and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the global economy has shown signs of weakening since the second half of last year. The economy has continued to weaken during the first half of this year. As the economy has yet to fully recover, we have accelerated the building of port facilities so we can be ready for business opportunities when the economy rebounds,” Lee said.
Cargo Terminal No. 7 at the Port of Kaohsiung was opened in May, to bolster the port’s service capacity for 24,000-TEU container ships, TIPC said.
New passenger terminals in the Port of Keelung and Port of Kaohsiung were also opened this year, in time for the recovery of the cruise ship market, the port company said.
During the first six months of this year, international cruise ships have stopped in ports around the country 128 times.
More cruise ships are scheduled to arrive during the second half of this year, TIPC said, adding that about 460,000 international visitors are to arrive by cruise ships this year.
More infrastructure projects are to be launched at five seaports in the next five months, including turning wharves Nos. 79 to 81 at the Port of Kaohsiung’s Cargo Terminal No. 5 over to Wanhai Lines, TIPC said.
To ensure a sustainable development of seaports, the port company said that it has used a computerized system to regulate vehicle traffic in seaports and monitor marine weather, adding that it has set a goal of reaching 50 percent of carbon neutrality by 2030 and full carbon neutrality by 2050.
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