Taiwan possesses the capabilities of manufacture, assembly and even design in the rail industry, including civil construction, electricity supply, signals, carriages, brakes, telecommunication, and information sub-systems. However, the driving force to integrate and organize is lacking. After one year of hard work to establish a flagship team of domestic rail industry, the promotion team of package plant export in the Main Industry Division of Upgrading Industries Service, Ministry of Economic Affairs, successfully won its first international rail construction bidding - the first-stage construction contract of the Danhai Light Rail. It plans to develop the competency of package plant export for the rail industry by domestically accomplishing the construction case to prepare for the tremendous oversea market.
The Industrial Development Bureau indicated that increasing local content rate is an impetus to boost economic development. The current local content rate for the rail industry in Taiwan is around 50%, mainly in civil construction, factory equipment and telecommunication systems. Most practitioners do not have actual experience in leading cases. Now, after one year of coordination by the package plant export promotion team, the flagship team of the domestic rail industry, led by the China Steel Corporation, has been established, winning the first-stage construction contract for the Danhai Light Rail. This is the first time that a construction case has been led by domestic practitioners, and it is hoped that the supply chain of the rail industry can be effectively promoted to facilitate package plant export and create more economic benefits.
The China Steel Corporation indicated that previous construction cases were mostly managed by international system companies, which is advantageous to international providers in resource allocation. Domestic providers might sacrifice their profits or even suffer losses due to lacking management authority. In this case, domestic practitioners won the bidding, instead of participating by being assigned works, which is of great help in promoting the supply chain of the domestic rail industry.
The construction contract of Danhai Light Rail constitutes a 10-kilometer railroad, 14 stations and 15 sets of carriages. It goes from MRT Hongshulin Station to Danhai New Town. The contract was signed at the end of 2014, and the construction was started then. According to the project, it will be completed by the end of 2018 and will be in operation after that. For the providers participating in this construction case, including providers of mechanical treatment, metal and plastic material and compound material, as well as providers of stainless steel carriages, steel material and aluminum material, it is estimated that the product value is over 50% of the construction budget, amounting to more than NT$5 billion.