The north-south high-speed railway may not be completed on schedule, after track vibration buffers failed safety tests, Chinese-language media reported yesterday, although Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) officials said they will meet the deadline.
The buffer pads have failed three safety tests over the past year, the Liberty Times reported, without citing sources.
But THSRC vice president Edward Lin (林天送) said the tests are continuing and are not likely to delay the completion schedule.
Lin called the reports "a misunderstanding," saying the company has not changed its completion date.
A total of 170,000 vibration buffer sets will be used on the 300km railway, which is scheduled to begin operations in October 2005.
The buffers, which are inserted between the tracks and the railway base, have failed to meet European stability standards, despite improvements made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a partner in the Japanese consortium Taiwan Shinkansen, the report said.
Taiwan Shinkansen won the rail project in late 1999, beating its European rival Eurotrain.
THSRC has insisted on European standards for the rail tracks, while Mitsubishi has tried to meet such standards with Japanese components, the report said.
The report also said there have been disputes with the Japanese builders over how far European standards can be applied to Japanese rail systems, which use different technologies.
Mitsubishi is sending a team of engineers to Taiwan this week and another test is expected within two months, the report said.
The tests were conducted by the Institute of Applied Mechanics of the National Taiwan University.
Chen Chao-hsun (陳兆勛), a professor at the institute, said the railway's track fastener system "so far, has not met the regulations."
The problems must be rectified in the next month or two, before the institute completes its final report on the tests, Chen said.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
RSS