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Monday July 3, 6:24 PMMitsubishi Heavy to boost US nuclear power businessTOKYO, July 3 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said on Monday it aims to take advantage of the resurgence in the U.S. nuclear power market by launching a new advanced pressurised water reactor there in 2012.The Japanese company, which lost out to Toshiba Corp. in a race to buy U.S. nuclear plant maker Westinghouse earlier this year, added that it has formed a U.S. unit to develop its nuclear business. A string of moves by Toshiba, Hitachi Ltd. General Electric and other rivals have led to greater competitiveness in the global nuclear power market, which has regained popularity due to increasing energy demands in the United States and China as well as soaring oil prices. Concern over the safety of power supplies and growing demand worldwide for energy has fuelled a surge in crude oil prices, prompting fuel-hungry countries such as China to expand investment in other energy sources such as nuclear power. Hiroshi Inoue, vice president of Mitsubishi Heavy's Nuclear Energy Systems Headquarters, said the company plans to launch its new advanced pressurised water reactor model, the US-APWR, with a power generation capacity of 1,700 megawatts, in the key U.S. market in 2012. "Now that our development partner Westinghouse Electric has been bought by Toshiba, we need to start doing business on our own, and decided to enter the U.S. market," he told a news conference. He added that Mitsubishi, Japan's biggest heavy machinery maker, expects annual sales in its nuclear power business to rise to 300 billion yen ($2.6 billion) a year globally from the current 200 billion yen once its new reactor business in the U.S. takes off. Electricity demand in the U.S. is expected to grow 50 percent by 2030, he said. Japanese electronics conglomerate Toshiba in February agreed to buy Westinghouse, the U.S. power plant arm of British Nuclear Fuels, for $5.4 billion to bolster its position in the resurgent nuclear power industry. Mitsubishi Heavy, which currently collaborates with Westinghouse in some areas, will continue that collaboration even though the U.S. company has been bought out by Toshiba, Inoue said. Mitsubishi Heavy booked consolidated sales of 2.8 trillion yen in the year ended March. Washington-based MHI Nuclear Energy Systems Inc., which started operation on July 1, hopes to receive a construction permit and an operating license for its new US-APWR from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2011. The company said the development costs for the US-APWR totalled 40 billion yen, and that the model comprises a range of modifications to its previous 1,538 megawatt reactor model. The company added that the new model has the world's highest level of thermal efficiency. "Mitsubishi will have to further improve quality and lower costs to compete in the market because Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi are currently on the same level, but the other two are in a better position," said Shigeki Okazaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities. Okazaki added that Mitsubishi is trailing its two rivals after missing out on the Westinghouse deal. Last month, Hitachi said it would work with General Electric Co. to build nuclear power facilities for $5.2 billion, in what would be Hitachi's first major overseas nuclear power project. |
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