URGENT: Hitachi abandons $28 bil. nuclear power plant project in Britain
September 16, 2020 at 04:28 am EDT
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Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it will exit a 3 trillion yen ($28 billion) project to build a nuclear power plant in Britain, more than a year after putting it on hold due to ballooning costs.
In a severe blow to Japan's efforts to boost infrastructure exports, the withdrawal comes after Hitachi sought additional financial support for any resumption of the plan the Japanese industrial conglomerate suspended in 2019.
The project, involving Hitachi subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power Ltd., was to construct two reactors on the island of Anglesey in northern Wales.
Hitachi specializes in manufacturing and marketing of electronic and industrial equipments. Net sales (including intragroup) break down by family of products and services as follows:
- social infrastructure and industrial systems (24.7%): elevators, escalators, industrial facilities, railway systems, power generation units, etc. The group also provides engineering and construction of nuclear, hydroelectric, and thermal power plants services;
- information and telecommunications products and services (20.1%): systems integration, cloud computing, software, servers, hard disks, PCs, ATMs, data communication base stations, payment terminals, etc.;
- materials and components (16.6%): semi-conductor materials, printed circuit cards, cables, copper and forged steel products, magnetic materials, organic and inorganic chemical products, etc.;
- construction equipment (10%) : hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, mining equipment, etc.;
- automotive systems (9.4%): powertrain systems, control systems, etc.;
- electronic products (9.2%): fiber-optic components, screen tubes, testing and measurement equipment, medical equipment, equipment for manufacturing semiconductors, etc.;
- household appliances (4.7%): heating and air conditioning equipments, refrigerators, washing machines, etc.;
- other (5.3%): mainly transport, financial and logistical services.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Japan (49.2%), Asia (21.3%), North America (12.7%), Europe (10.8%) and other (6%).