Airbus SE said yesterday that Taiwan’s EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) has finalized an order for 33 planes from the European aircraft maker, including 18 long-range A350-1000 planes and 15 single-aisle A321neo models.
Airbus did not provide a figure, but the deal could be worth as much as US$8.5 billion under catalog prices that the aerospace giant has not updated since 2018.
Airbus said that it has more than 1,000 firm orders from 60 customers worldwide for its A350 models. The wide-bodied A350-1000 type can seat up to 410 passengers and travel up to 18,000 kilometers non-stop.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
“The A350 is setting new standards across the board in terms of range, payload, fuel efficiency and passenger comfort,” Airbus executive vice president for sales and commercial aircraft Benoit de Saint-Exupery said in a statement.
The A321neo, part of the A320neo family, has received more than 5,600 orders since its launch in 2016.
“In both size categories we have selected the most modern and fuel-efficient types, that offer the highest levels of passenger comfort,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the Airbus statement. “The aircraft also bring significant reductions in carbon emissions, which is in line with our company’s sustainability goals.”
Founded in 1989, EVA Airways has a fleet of 86 planes. It carried 2.2 million passengers in 2022.
The airline serves 61 destinations over four continents, not including Africa, according to its Web site.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS