A Japanese consortium said yesterday that it has won an order for the last major portion of Taiwan's new bullet train project, bringing the total value of its contracts to US$4.6 billion.
The service, expected to start operating between Taipei and Kaohsiung in October 2005, will be the first adoption overseas of Japan's bullet-train system.
"Winning the huge contracts is very bright news to the Japanese industrial world and we strongly hope the success in this project will lead to more exports of railway systems," the seven-member group said in a statement.
The consortium, led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, won the contract for laying 153km of track for NT$29.23 billion (US$850 million), beating Australian, European, and Taiwanese rivals.
The consortium was awarded contracts by Taiwan's High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC,
The remaining five percent, or 16 km, is being built by an Australian consortium.
The deals Japan has signed with THSRC now amount to NT$156.97 billion, including NT$30.70 billion for a contract last year to construct the southern section of the line and another NT$97-billion deal to supply train carriages, signals and other systems.
The Japanese consortium also includes Toshiba Corp, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsui and Co, Mitsubishi Corp, Marubeni Corp and Sumitomo Corp.
Taiwan's bullet train is expected to run at speeds of up to 300 kmh, and the project has an estimated cost of about $NT440 billion.
The Japanese team's statement said that winning the contracts "is a result of the evaluation that the Japanese system is superior."
Japan is also vying for a massive contract to build a high-speed railway line from Beijing to Shanghai. That deal is estimated to be worth US$12 billion.
A spokesman at trading house Mitsui said the Taiwan deal would have no bearing on the outcome of bidding for the Chinese project.
"We do not think this will have a favorable impact (on competition for the Beijing-Shanghai link), although it is not certainly negative," he said.
Competition for the Chinese project is extremely fierce, with Japanese, French and German alliances all bidding.
Transrapid International, a German consortium made up of German engineering giants Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, has already notched up one success in the rail business in China.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji
The maglev train literally floats above the track while pushed along by powerful magnets. The Shanghai maglev for the 30-km line is capable of speeds of 430 kmh.
Uncertainty also remains over whether China will actually use the maglev technology or a more conventional system for its long-distance railways.
The possibility of offering technology transfers and financial assistance are also seen as key to winning the race.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS