A company owned by Elon Musk that is trying to lower the cost of building high-speed transit tunnels has asked US President Donald Trump’s administration to exempt it from tariffs for some Chinese-made tunnel boring machine components, warning that the tariffs could significantly delay a planned tunnel between New York and Washington.
In a July 31 letter posted last week on a government Web site, the Boring Co asked the US Trade Representative’s office to exempt parts such as cutterheads, screw conveyors and related machinery.
Boring seeks “limited parts from China in the near term for use in a small number of tunnel boring machines,” the letter said, adding that those parts are “readily available only from China.”
Privately held Boring added that it is “working to develop and manufacture our own tunnel boring machines” and wants to “restore the now-dormant American tunnel boring machine industry.”
For planned tunnels, including a project between Washington and Baltimore, the company would “use machines that are majority-composed of US content,” it said.
The tariffs could cause “severe economic harm” to the company and US interests, and could result in a delay of one to two years in the construction of a proposed Washington-to-Baltimore tunnel that it plans to eventually extend to New York.
Exempting the parts would not harm US industry, the company said, adding that tunneling is not one of 10 sectors identified in China’s “Made in 2025” plan.
The company’s business model is “predicated upon substantially reducing the cost of tunneling,” it said.
Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla Inc, in June proposed building a US$1 billion underground transit system in Chicago. The plan would send people from Chicago’s downtown Loop district to O’Hare International Airport at 241km per hour.
The Boring Co has been promoting its plans for tunnels that would allow high-speed travel between cities.
The company initially plans to ferry passengers between Washington and Baltimore on autonomous electric vehicles carrying eight to 16 passengers at 200 to 241kph, but would not use tracks or railway equipment.
The US Trade Representative’s office and Boring did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Other companies including General Motors Co have sought exemptions from new US tariffs imposed on Chinese imports.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS