TAIWAN SHIPBUILDER LOOKS FOR JAPANESE VENTURES Taiwan's state-owned China Shipbuilding Corp (CSBC) plans to seek joint production agreements with Japan and further diversify into ship repairing to try to trim its debts, chairman Louis Lo said. He told Reuters in an interview that CSBC's first joint production venture, to build two hulls for <Onomichi Dockyard Co Ltd>, was a success. Talks on similar projects have been held with other Japanese firms, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Co Ltd <MITH.T> and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co Ltd <JIMA.T>, he said. Lo said CSBC delivered the hulls of two 2,200-TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) container ships this year to Onomichi, which would complete production. "We expect the successful cooperation between us and Onomichi will pave the way for further cooperation with other Japanese shipbuilders in the future," Lo said. He said Japanese firms would gain from the lower cost of shipbuilding in Taiwan while CSBC would benefit from Japanese technology and marketing. This would pose a challenge to competitors in Europe and South Korea. Lo said CSBC has made losses of about 100 mln U.S. Dlrs since beginning operations in 1975. Its total debt now stands at about 500 mln dlrs, with annual interest payments of nearly three mln dlrs. But he said the company, which is Taiwan's largest shipbuilder, still has full government support and had begun diversifying into ship repairing and manufacture of pipes and other machinery. "We hope we can survive and prosper through diversification," he said. Lo said income from ship repairing almost doubled to 20 mln U.S. Dlrs in the year ended June 1986 compared with the previous financial year. He estimated income would rise to more than 25 mln dlrs in 1986/87. CSBC has orders to build 10 ships totalling 460,000 dead weight tons (dwt) this financial year, compared with 11 ships of 462,000 dwt in 1985/86, he said. Lo said the prospects for shipbuilding were gloomy at least until 1991 due to overtonnage, but the outlook for ship repairing was bright.