A "bullet train" being built for Taiwan in Japan is set to roll out of the factory this coming week, Taiwan's rail operator said yesterday.
"The debut of the 700T locomotive and carriages will be a milestone in the project," a spokeswoman for the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC,
Taiwan's Transport Minister Lin Ling-san (林陵三) and THSRC chairwoman Nita Ing (殷琪) will attend the ceremony in Kobe on Friday, the spokeswoman said.
Japan has also attached great importance to the mulit-billion-dollar project as it is the first time Japan has exported the high-speed bullet train, also known as Shinkansen.
A Japanese consortium of seven companies signed the deal with THSRC for the supply of the core system -- trains and carriages, signalling system, electrification system, communications system and operation control system -- at a price of US$3.02 billion in 2000 ahead of the Eurotrain consortium.
The seven Japanese companies involved in the project are Mitsui Corp, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp, Sumitomo Corp, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Toshiba Electric.
The first train is scheduled to be shipped to Taiwan in the middle of the year and set to be tested in the third quarter.
The 345km high-speed rail linking Taipei and Kaohsiung is slated to begin commercial operation in October next year.
The system, with the trains running at an average speed of 300kph, is expected to transport 100 million passengers a year.
The service would cut the journey time between Taipei and Kaohsiung from about four hours to an hour and a half.
In 1998 THSRC won the US$440 billion contract to build the system under Taiwan's largest ever BOT (build-operate-transfer) project, under which the rail system will be managed by the THSRC for 35 years before is is turned over to state control.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS