HITACHI, Ibaraki Prefecture--Hitachi Ltd. has reopened a key turbine plant that shut down when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, but the future of its nuclear power business remains murky.
HITACHI, Ibaraki Prefecture--Hitachi Ltd. has reopened a key turbine plant that shut down when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, but the future of its nuclear power business remains murky.
Hitachi resumed full operations at the turbine plant here Tuesday.
Technicians were examining steam turbines used by Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Hitachi has put priority on TEPCO-related contracts to help the utility recover its electricity supply, which has been affected by the crisis at the nuclear power plant and the fact that many thermal power plants were seriously damaged.
The city of Hitachi, the company's birthplace which provides employment for more than 10,000 people at its main factories alone, was badly shaken by an earthquake with an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese scale of 7 on March 11.
Although the complex was spared a direct hit from tsunami, operations halted temporarily. There was no electricity, gas or water as power cables were submerged by discharged groundwater.
It took Hitachi about two weeks to thoroughly check production equipment, cranes and buildings housing equipment at the turbine plant.
It was a painstaking process because any misalignment of equipment used to build large components such as turbines and motors--Hitachi's mainstay products--could prove irreversible.
While operations resumed at the plant, damage to other parts of the production complex have yet to be repaired.
Ten buildings in the complex remain off-limits.
With three of them housing manufacturing equipment for utility-related products, the company was forced to continue production of such equipment in other plants.
Hitachi said only 60 percent of 260 vital machine tools were back to operation by Tuesday.
Adding to the plight of the company, the pier at Hitachi Port that was used to ship large turbines has been closed.
Although Hitachi plans to resume shipments Sunday by using part of the pier, it will be a while before the pier becomes fully operational again.
The nation's worst postwar natural disaster also heightened a sense of uncertainty about the company's long-term financial prospects.
The image of the nuclear power business, an arena on which Hitachi has focused, was badly tarnished by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Hitachi has pushed sales of nuclear power-related equipment and facilities to China and elsewhere by allying with General Electric Co. of the United States.
The disaster is expected to deal a serious blow to the nuclear power business, a pillar of Hitachi's heavy electrical machinery unit.
One of the four troubled reactors at the Fukushima plant was constructed by Hitachi.
The international community's faith in Japan's nuclear power technology has eroded following the accident at the Fukushima plant.
A senior official at a local machinery processing maker supplying Hitachi with nuclear power-related equipment expressed concern about the future of nuclear power plants.
"Japan's nuclear energy policy may change completely," the official said. "Projects to build new reactors in Japan may be put on hold."
Hitachi expected to log a record group net profit for the year ending this month on the back of soaring sales of electronic components and highly functional materials aimed for emerging economies.
With the nuclear crisis, meanwhile, Hitachi expects to receive new orders from TEPCO, a crucial client, as the utility is scrambling to construct new thermal power plants and restore damaged power stations to increase electricity supply.
It would be good news for Hitachi's heavy electrical machinery unit, which accounts for 10 percent of the company's overall sales and operating profits.