Factories of more than 100 Taiwanese manufacturers in Hai Phong, Vietnam, were damaged during Typhoon Yagi, which swept through the northern part of the country last weekend, the head of the local Taiwanese business group said on Thursday.
Almost all 150 members of the Hai Phong branch of the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam reported that the rooftops or gates of their factories were blown off during the typhoon, which made landfall on Saturday last week, said Hai Phong branch head Wang Kun-sheng (王坤生) said.
Fortunately, no injuries or deaths were reported by Taiwanese businesses, Wang added.
Photo: Hau Dinh, AP
Typhoon-linked fatalities in Vietnam rose to 199, and the country is still coping with the aftermath of floods and landslides, an Agence France-Presse report said on Thursday.
In Hai Phong, power was cut for 48 hours as the city was at the center of the typhoon, Wang said, adding that the suburbs still had no power, water supply, phone lines or Internet.
Wang said he had to drive one hour to Hai Phong just to make a phone call.
“It is the first time I feel I’m in a disaster zone,” he said.
In Do Son, southeast of Hai Phong, where many Taiwanese manufacturers have set up operations in an industrial park, power has returned, but a shoe company executive surnamed Kao said production has not resumed, because water leaks through the damaged roof whenever it rains.
Kao estimated his losses in terms of hardware at about US$300,000.
Wang’s factory outside the industrial park is still waiting for power to return, like most of the residential area in Do Son. Few shops were open, and multiple fallen trees, damaged traffic lights and blown-off shop signs were seen along main roads on Thursday.
Wang said the damages to his factory and equipment were about US$200,000, and that there is a shortage of workers and construction material, because everyone is still trying to rebuild.
Taiwanese businesses have reported the damage and issues they face to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam, Wang said, adding that he would seek a tax deduction for typhoon-caused damage.
However, Taiwanese businesses are not looking for subsidies from the Vietnamese government, as local residents also faced heavy losses and damage, Wang added.
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
RSS