Posted on 07/10/2005 4:37:40 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Mitsubishi Heavy offers to buy nuclear plant builder Westinghouse
Sunday, July 10, 2005 at 07:00 JST
TOKYO — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd has offered to purchase major U.S. nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co in a multibillion yen deal, company officials said Saturday.
The move is intended to increase Mitsubishi Heavy's profitability by tapping new fields as its bottom line has been squeezed by cutbacks in public works spending in Japan, they said.
Westinghouse's parent firm, British nuclear reprocessing group British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), said last week it was putting the U.S. company up for sale.
Apart from Mitsubishi, France's AREVA, the world's largest nuclear engineering group, and U.S. giant General Electric are also interested in acquiring Westinghouse, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Saturday.
Demand for nuclear power construction has levelled out in Japan and domestic heavy machinery makers such as Mitsubishi Heavy, Hitachi and Toshiba are aiming to expand their nuclear power operations abroad. (Wire reports)
It doesn't have one now.
MHI has great respect for Westinghouse and had a close working relationship for them before Jordon came along. I know, I used to work for MHI before Jordon almost dragged us down the toilet with Westinghouse.
As an added plus, MHI is strong in nuclear power in Japan and unlikely to wreck or sell off the company the way Westinghouse's modern top management has done. I'm not an advocate of selling core national security related U.S. businesses to foreign companies. The circumstances in this specific case, however, argue strongly for an exception to the rule.
MHI has a good safety record in Japan and, unlike Westinghouse, just might have the balls to confront the no-nukes kooks lobby in the U.S.A. and push through badly needed nuclear power projects.
They may not have the very latest in design, but they have a proven track record... in these days of lawyers suing anything that moves that counts for something. And they do have newer ALWR (advanced light water reactors) designs as well.
Is Mitsubishi going to use slave labour to build these like they used slave labour (Captured U.S. P.O.W.s) during WW II?
So...you went ashore at Iwo ?
Siemans bought Westinghouse's combustion turbine assets. The nuke stuff went to BNF and the Washington Group.
Here's a good article about the dismantling of Westinghouse. A chain of decisions doomed Westinghouse years before Jordan arrived. It was almost a mercy killing at that point.
http://www.post-gazette.com/westinghouse/prologue.asp
I toured the MHI Kobe works in 1990. I found it ironic that a lot of there electrical equipment (ie. meters, switchgear, ...) looks exactly like 1950,60,70s vintage Westinghouse equipment.
I think they got some of ideas from good old American engineering. But the plant was very impressive and they had an advanced R&D dept. There was a lot of "big" stuff there.
Actually it has two.....GE and Westinghouse.
Westinghouse resides in the USA
Get a calender....... it's 2005, not 1950
I wasn't aware that GE builds nuclear power plants. Therefore, it is the only American owned company involved in the industry with Westinghouse being owned by British Nuclear Group?
The point is not whether Westinghouse will survice. The point is whether they will be sold-- or enter a closer relationship-- with an allied country such as Japan, with an enemy country such as France or with a who-knows country such as Germany.
Poor enforcement of anti-trust rules now threatens to sell Unocal to the Red Chinese. Considering the attitude of our Kool-Aid drinking globalization masters, it is only a matter of time before they decide the weaker of the two nuclear power providers in the United States is expendable as well.
When, not if, that happens, who would you rather have buy Westinghouse?
Yes, there is always the chance the public could revolt and force a return to the days of putting national security concerns over the wonders of globalization. There is also the chance we may decide to insist that all immigrants come here legally and show loyalty to this country before they are granted citizenship. I am not holding my breath for either scenario.
But, dozens of former Westinghouse executives and other observers who watched the conglomerate slip into oblivion now believe, that blind devotion to Wall Street -- more than anything else -- was what killed the corporation.
Jordan's bid for CBS, more than anything else, was the final exemplification of this. Jordan could have been a hero to Wall Street and investors alike by actually doing something with CBS (starting with firing Dan Rather) rather than continuing business as usual with the weakest and most liberal of the three networks.
Yeah, there were worthless CEO's before Jordan, but he will be remembered as the most worthless of the lot.
I don't think Mitsubishi nor any company that used slave labour (American service pows) should ever be forgiven. They were never punished. But I guess all those pows killed don't matter to you there sport.
I figure you are either IGNORANT of the facts or just don't give much of a DAMN.
2005? I don't care if it is 3005.
The Japaneese have never taken credit for nor shown shame for the attrocities and Mitsubishi is one of the worst.
But then you just don't care because it was in the past.
No i have just spent time with a former pow that was abused at the hands of the japaneese.
I also had a neighbor that was in nazi concentration camps that I used to play cards with. Talked a lot about his past also and don't care for germans either.
Savages.\
Oh yeah, i know but that was in the past.
You've heard the old saying about learning from the past or repeat it?
Ok there sport, just ignore the past.
If the japs were in power as they were in WW2 they would be doing the same things, don't you think? I sure do.
I'm of the opinion that GE has returned to the business but may have not actually engaged in a new project.
As I understand the situation they are near final design and have a major problem, Westinghouse.
Further, both are actively engaged in planninf fir new reactors in the USA under revised/relaxed rules. For reasons I don't understand, the vociferous anti's have gone away.
I can't find my reference, but it was a lengthy article in Forbes around January 2005
Yes, had circumstances been reversed I am certain Germany and Japan would have cruely kept control of its subjects.
Course I am sure they eventually would have tried to eat each other.
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