On May 23, Chris Liddell, Carter Holt Harvey's CEO, flew into Taiwan on his way to various appointments with investors in Hong Kong. Liddell spent a day with John Tran, futurebuild's Asia Markets Manager, and Philip Chen, United Forests Products Corporations Director, visiting the two rail sites and another bridge construction in the region.

Primarily, Liddell was interested in viewing the progress on the formwork developments and in assessing the impact that initiatives in the region were having. Not only was he impressed with the scale of the project but with the sheer volume of Truform used.

Taiwan's High-Speed Rail project, currently in progress, runs for 345 kms, from Taipei to Kaohsiung, from one end of Taiwan to the other. It's an enormous project, worth around $12 billion U.S and funded by a consortium of Banks and Financial Institutions.

An elevated train system, the High-Speed Rail project requires repetitive pours all along its length. The Truform, LVL Formwork Beams act as joist supports.

Truform provided many benefits for such a civil construction project. It is lightweight, so that less labour is required on the job and the need for heavy-duty machinery is eliminated altogether. It's quick to install, durable and can be re-used without damage. These qualities made Truform the right choice for the project. It's time-saving benefits made it a far more efficient alternative.

Penalties for any delay on a project of this size are immense, particularly with being the first BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) privately funded project and many local and foreign construction companies involved. This made the speed and ease of Truform quite indispensable.

Truform's local distributors, United Forest Products Corporation (UFPC), offered additional benefits: delivery on time; cut to length and technical support.

However, Truform can be more expensive than steel or timber. In the Taiwanese market, amongst the most cost-conscious formworkers, the focus is cost rather than value. This situation presents big challenges. The use of Truform in large civil construction projects like Taiwan's High-Speed Rail is significant in changing this mindset. In demonstrating Truform's benefits and qualities, the High-Speed Rail and other similar constructions are of key importance.

Taiwan's High-Speed Rail and earlier projects such as the Taiwan Southern Highway have begun to make inroads into a new market for LVL formwork solutions. This has also been a fast track opportunity for Liddell to visit futurebuild's innovative solutions to civil construction work.