Toshiba, Hitachi, Tokyo Electric to Form Japan Nuclear Venture

Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are among six Japanese companies that will form a joint venture to sell nuclear reactors and technology to Vietnam and other countries.

The group, which includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co., will seek financial assistance from the trade ministry, they said in a joint statement yesterday. The companies have set up an office ahead of forming the venture this autumn.

Japan is holding talks for nuclear cooperation treaties with India, Jordan, and Russia and has had preliminary discussions with Vietnam. The trade ministry will work to speed negotiations for the treaties, which are necessary for Japanese companies to export nuclear technology, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Russia’s state-run Rosatom Corp. has been selected to build the first of as many as 13 nuclear power plants planned in Vietnam by 2030, the government said last month. Japan, which lost out to South Korea in December on a $20 billion atomic contract with the United Arab Emirates, is competing in the expanding global reactor market with France, Russia, Canada, and the U.S.

To contact the reporters on this story: Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net; Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net.

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