CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday said it was optimistic about its repair business for this year after the shipbuilder secured NT$380 million (US$12.34) in government contracts to repair a military ship and a research vessel.
CSBC has signed an open contract to repair the Republic of China Navy’s Panshi, a fast combat support ship, with the deal covering all maintenance work for five years, CSBC president Tseng Kuo-cheng (曾國正) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
An open contract is an agreement in which terms and clauses can be changed or modified without mutual consent among the signatories.
“Usually there is no settled price in an open contract, but the Ministry of National Defense has made it clear that the repair budget for the Panshi would stand at NT$280 million,” Tseng said.
CSBC, which began work on the 20,000-tonne vessel in 2012, delivered the ship in 2015.
The company rarely signs open contracts, but won this one after the ministry said it was better that the ship’s builder do the repairs, Tseng said.
It was unclear what maintenance the ship needs this year, but CSBC expects to book steady revenue over the next five years, he said, adding that work would be done at its Kaohsiung facilities.
CSBC, the nation’s only listed shipbuilder, this month also signed a contract with the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Research Institute to repair the agency’s first fisheries research vessel, Tseng said.
“We did not see many rivals for the tender, as it is not easy to repair a 25-year-old vessel,” he said.
CSBC would need to complete the work at its Keelung facilities by the end of this year, he said.
“Overall, we have had a good beginning to the year and hope to win more repair contracts,” Tseng said.
Although maintenance only contributes 3 percent to 5 percent to CSBC’s overall revenue, the gross margin from such work is quite good, he said.
Meanwhile, CSBC said Orsted A/S had not notified it to suspend a contract to develop pin piles for offshore wind projects.
The Danish firm this month announced it was suspending its offshore wind projects in Taiwan after failing to receive an establishment permit for projects off the Changhua County coast and was unable to secure a power purchase agreement at last year’s feed-in tariff rate.
Separately, CSBC said that it would raise NT$2.25 billion in fresh funds to fuel development.
The company plans to issue 100 million new shares, with most of them to be purchased by a state-run institution, which it declined to specify.
The company’s state-owned stakeholders include the Ministry of Economic Affairs and China Steel Corp (中鋼).
They hold a combined 41.5 percent stake in CSBC, which would still be the largest stake after CSBC’s scheme is completed, the company said.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS