Taiwan’s local offshore wind pioneer Swancor – the first to deploy turbines in its waters – signaled a dramatic pull-back from the sector with a deal to sell its Swancor New Energy subsidiary and interests in the Formosa 2 project to a mystery “European or North American” buyer.

The plan – prompted by its failure last year to secure new capacity – was announced in a late-night stock exchange filing on 20 June by Swancor’s board and its chairman Robert Tsai, prompting steep falls in the share price in the speciality chemicals group by 10% on Friday and another 9.9%