Alstom should be able to sign a formal contract to supply trains for Shanghai's third metro line in a few weeks, French officials said on Saturday. The trains would be for the east China city's light railline, scheduled to enter operation in 2000.

Alstom said on Friday that it had signed a letter of intent with Shanghai Mass Transit Pearl Line Development Co Ltd to supply 24 six-car trains worth $200 million. Pierre Bilger, Alstom's chairman, is accompanying French prime minister Lionel Jospin on an official visit to China. "A commercial contract will follow the accord in severalweeks' time, as is the usual practice for these projects," said a French official travelling with the prime minister.

Formosa to decide fate of DRAM venture

The chairman of Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group said on Saturday that the group would decide in a month whether to continue its money-losing semiconductor venture. "In about one month time, you will hearsomething about NanYa Technology Corp. We will decide whether to go ahead or to stop," Formosa Group chairman Wang Yung-ching said. He declined to give any details, nor figures for Nan Ya Technology's losses.