France and Germany are to send ministers to Taiwan in January for last-minute campaigning ahead of a decision on a lucrative high-speed rail contract, an official from one of the bidding firms said.
"French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot and German Economic Minister Werner Muller will travel to Taiwan in January but not on the same date," said an official from the Eurotrain consortium -- made up of French firm Alstom and Germany's Siemens.
"We have full support of both governments," the official said on condition of anonymity. "It is reasonable they would voice their concerns while here."
The European conglomerate is locked in battle with the Shinkansen group of Japan for a NT$95 billion (US$3 billion) contract to supply train carriages and locomotives.
Gayssot cancelled a visit to Taiwan this month following the outbreak of a cabinet-level scandal in Paris which involves weapon sales to Taipei years ago.
Local media said Gayssot was scheduled to meet President Lee Teng-hui, Transport Minister Lin Feng-cheng and Nita Ing, chairwoman of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC), which won the NT$440 billion(US$13.86 billion) contract for Taiwan's first high-speed rail project.
It will construct a 340-km railway linking Taipei and the southern city of Kaohsiung on a build-operate-transfer basis.
Japan, which is promoting Shinkansen's "bullet train" as more suitable for Taiwan than Eurotrain's TGV system, has been reluctant to make official contact with Taipei in deference to Beijing.
The Eurotrain official renewed the conglomerate's pledge to invest a 5 percent stake in the mammoth project. Eurotrain also guaranteed to help bring in investment for another 5 percent holding.
It forecast the Taiwan high-speed rail system to transport 100 million passengers a year, double that of the average passenger load for European rails of the same length.
Although the THSRC is to make a preliminary decision between Eurotrain and Shinkansen before the end of December, there is provision for the losing bidder to stake a late claim before the contract is signed in January which is when the French and German ministers are due to arrive.
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
FORECAST: The greater computing power needed for emerging AI applications has driven higher demand for advanced semiconductors worldwide, TSMC said The government-supported Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has raised its forecast for this year’s growth in the output value of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to above 22 percent on strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. In its latest IEK Current Quarterly Model report, the institute said the local semiconductor industry would have output of NT$6.5 trillion (US$216.6 billion) this year, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, an upward revision from a 19.1 percent increase estimate made in May. The strong showing of the local semiconductor industry largely reflected the stronger-than-expected performance of the integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing segment,
NVIDIA FACTOR: Shipments of AI servers powered by GB300 chips would undergo pilot runs this quarter, with small shipments possibly starting next quarter, it said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which supplies artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp chips, yesterday said that AI servers are on track to account for 70 percent of its total server revenue this year, thanks to improved yield rates and a better learning curve for Nvidia’s GB300 chip-based servers. AI servers accounted for more than 60 percent of its total server revenue in the first half of this year, Quanta chief financial officer Elton Yang (楊俊烈) told an online conference. The company’s latest production learning curve of the AI servers powered by Nvidia’s GB200 chips has improved after overcoming key component
RSS