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.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).