The Kaohsiung Harbor handled 10.27 million 20-foot containers last year, 1.9 percent less than a year earlier amid the establishment of new worldwide shipping alliances and a consolidation in the shipping industry, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) reported on Saturday.
The nation’s largest port, ranked the 17th-busiest container port in the world in 2016, saw its ranking improve to 13th in the first half of last year, the Liberty Times said.
It did not specify where the port stood in world rankings for the whole of last year, citing a lack of available data.
However, Kaohsiung might have seen its ranking fall two notches in the second half, overtaken by Antwerp, Belgium, and Xiamen, China, the report said.
PROUD HISTORY
The port was the world’s No. 3 container port during the 1980s, but lost its position in the top 10 in the late 2000s, due to reduced manufacturing activities in Taiwan and also because neighboring countries, especially China, boosted capacity at their ports or built new ports.
GRADUAL RETURN
Taiwan International Ports Corp (TIPC, 台灣港務) president Kuo Tien-kuei (郭添貴) told the Liberty Times that he was not happy with the decline in container volume at the harbor last year.
State-run TIPC is headquartered in Kaohsiung and oversees all of the nation’s international seaports.
However, sea freight traffic in Kaohsiung gradually stabilized in the second half of last year as TIPC sought to collaborate with major shippers to cope with changes in the global shipping industry, Kuo said.
NEEDED UPDATES
The port’s container wharfs need a makeover to accommodate larger cargo ships, and TIPC is working with international shipping companies and experienced port service companies to set up business at Kaohsiung Harbor’s No. 7 container terminal, Kuo said.
Once that terminal begins operations later this year, it is expected to provide high-efficiency, low-cost loading and unloading operations, TIPC said.
It is expected to attract at least NT$15 billion (US$508.1 million) in operation facilities and equipment investment, the corporation said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his