The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should consider merging Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) with Taiwan International Port Corp (TIPC) amid a recession of the global shipping industry, lawmakers at the legislature’s Transportation Committee said yesterday.
The committee was scheduled to review the Construction Fund of Ports budget yesterday.
However, lawmakers focused on possible measures to salvage debt-ridden state-run Yang Ming, which has accumulated losses of NT$33.8 billion (US$1.06 billion) since 2009.
Yang Ming’s total losses in the first three quarters of this year reached NT$13.02 billion.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said that he was against the government’s plan to offer the shipping industry, particularly Yang Ming, a NT$60 billion loan so that the sector can weather a financial storm caused by the recession in the global shipping industry.
Chen proposed that Yang Ming merge with another shipping firm or a shipping-related service operator, adding that similar mergers of shipping firms have occurred in China and other nations.
Chen said that the government has a 33 percent stake in Yang Ming, so it might be difficult to merge it with the nation’s largest shipping firm, Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), as one is a state-run company and the other is a privately owned firm.
A merger between Yang Ming and TIPC would be more viable, with the latter also being a state-run firm that operates seaports, Chen said.
Chen said that Yang Ming has been in the red since 2009, adding that the company’s management could leave the firm and let the government foot the bill.
The ministry should set up a mechanism within three months to hold people who used to be in management positions at the company accountable for their decisions that caused the losses, he said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yu-peng (鄭運鵬) also urged the government to seek compensation from South Korea on behalf of the nation’s shipping firms due to financial losses they incurred after Seoul-based Hanjin Shipping Co filed for bankruptcy.
Cheng said that 50,000 containers carrying Taiwanese products are either stranded at sea or have been seized by port authorities around the world.
“As of today, some of the cargo owned by Taiwanese companies are still in Singapore or at seaports in other nations,” Cheng said.
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