BIZCHINA / Overseas Investment |
France wins deal for nuke plantsBy Wang Ying (Shanghai Daily)Updated: 2007-03-06 14:28 China will award a contract to build two nuclear reactors in its southeast to France's Areva SA, a Chinese official said yesterday.
China needs to add two reactors a year to meet a 2020 target of getting four percent of its power from nuclear energy from about 2.3 percent now. Areva and Westinghouse are competing to build as many as 26 more reactors by 2020 as China turns to atomic energy to cut pollution and reliance on oil. "Awarding the contracts to two companies will give China more room in later negotiations," said Yan Shi, a Shanghai-based analyst with Core Pacific Yamaichi International Ltd. Westinghouse originally won a US$5.3 billion agreement on December 16 to build reactors at Yangjiang and Sanmen, after outbidding Areva and Russia's AtomStroyExport following almost two years of negotiation and lobbying. France's President Jacques Chirac promoted Areva's bid when he met his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, during a visit to Beijing in October. The parties will sign a final agreement "very soon," Qian told reporters,
without giving specific reasons for the decision to award the contract to build
the reactors in Guangdong Province to Areva instead of
Westinghouse. Paris-based Areva may build the Yangjiang reactors, among four originally earmarked for Westinghouse, which will instead get a contract for two reactors at Haiyang in Shandong Province, according to Bloomberg News. (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates) |
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