Taiwan Shipbuilding Forecast to top US$1.6 bln

Business in Asia Today claims that the production value of Taiwan's shipbuilding industry is expected to amount to NT$52 billion (US$1.6 billion) for 2007, up 21 per cent over the year-earlier level, according to tallies released Thursday by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This will mark the first time the country's shipbuilding output has topped NT$50 billion, IDB officials said, predicting that the production value will further expand to more than NT$60 billion for 2008. For the first 11 months of this year, Taiwan's state-owned shipbuilder, CSBS Corp., Taiwan, saw its revenue amount to NT$26.2 billion and its pre-tax net profit hit a record-high of NT$4 billion, the officials said.