Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC,
According to THSRC's latest estimate, calculated last month, the total cost of the project would be NT$460.9 billion (US$13.6 billion), which represents a 3.6 percent increase from the original estimate of NT$445 billion (US$13.15 billion) set in October 1999 when the contractor signed the deal with the government.
"The range of the increase is considered tiny and affordable to us ... it also reduced our pressure to raise funds to obtain loans from banks," Lee Sheau-jin (李曉金), chief financial officer of THSRC, told a media gathering yesterday.
In February, the THSRC estimated that the total cost for the project would be NT$513.3 billion.
The figure dampened investors' enthusiasm for pumping more money into the project, raising fears that the THSRC would face a crisis in raising funds to complete construction.
Construction spending on the north-south bullet train project jumped from NT$375.5 billion to NT$436.5 billion since 1999, mainly as a result of changes to the track design and terrain construction, Lee said.
Fortunately, Lee said, the average loan interest rate has dropped from 8 percent five years ago to 3 percent now, so the financial costs were sharply reduced from NT$69.4 billion to NT$24.4 billion.
The THSRC also got a boost from the Council for Economic Planning and Development at the end of last month. The council agreed that the THSRC only has to raise 25 percent of the total funds to get loans, lowering the figure from 30 percent. The remaining 75 percent is to be made up in bank loans.
After the adjustment, the THSRC is required to pool NT$20.5 billion, rather than NT$37.7 billion, by October next year, when the bullet trains are scheduled to start running between Taipei and Kaohsiung, Lee said.
Besides issuing preferred shares to a designated group of investors, the THSRC plans to apply to list its shares on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in the last quarter of the year, and hopefully to officially enter the capital market in the first half of next year, he said.
Lee declined to say which banks are being considered to manage its initial public offering.
The company is also considering issuing depository receipts to raise funds from overseas investors, but the timetable has not yet been decided, Lee said.
With 70 percent of the construction completed, THSRC president George Liu (
Liu said that the company plans to start testing trains next month on a 60km track at its factory in Yenchao, Kaohsiung County, before putting them on the 345km high-speed rail that runs between Taipei and Kaohsiung.
THSRC shares declined 0.74 percent to NT$8.06 per share yesterday on the Emerging Stock Market (
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
People stand in a Pokemon store in Tokyo on Thursday. One of the world highest-grossing franchises is celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
RSS