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.
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS