The Alstom-Siemens Eurotrain consortium has filed a US$800 million civil lawsuit claim against Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) after it failed to obtain a high-speed rail contract.
Eurotrain filed its claim with the Singapore International Arbitration Center to arbitrate the dispute in February and demanded a claim for its expenses over the past four years, a THSRC executive said.
"We have prepared for the lawsuit, which was expected," the executive said, adding that progress on the 345km rail between Taipei and Kaohsiung in the island's south would not be hampered.
THSRC named Eurotrain its "preferred bidder" in a preliminary 1997 deal for the supply of train carriages, locomotives, electronics and communication systems, and maintenance.
But THSRC switched the US$3 billion deal in December 1999 to Taiwan Shinkansen Consortium (TSC,
The Taiwan High Court rejected in June of last year an appeal filed by Eurotrain seeking an injunction to stop the signing of the agreement with TSC.
THSRC and TSC finalized the contract in December 2000.
"The Japanese side offered a better package in terms of price, financial planning and maintenance. This is a commercial decision," the official said.
The issue resurfaced in Taiwan on Monday when David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's representative to Belgium, told lawmakers that the pursuit of compensation by Eurotrain through international courts was damaging Taiwan's relationship with European nations.
In February 2000, European External Relations Commissioner Christopher Patten, urged Taiwan to warn "internationally recognized principles of transparency, objectivity and nondiscrimination," regarding the deal.
Construction of the high-speed rail project began in 1999 and the system is expected to become operational in 2003.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
RSS