State Nuclear Power Technology (SNPT), the transferee of advanced third-generation nuclear power technology from the United States’ Westinghouse, will be merged into China Power Investment Corp (CPI), one of the big five state-owned power generation groups. The move would bolster CPI’s status as the nation’s third largest nuclear reactor operator, and fill its technology gap with more established state-owned rivals China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). China Power International Development and China Power New Energy Development said in separate filings to Hong Kong’s stock exchange, that their ultimate parent CPI has told them that work has started for a consolidation and reorganisation between CPI and SNPT. “CPI has ample funding sources and market access, while SNPT has advanced technology,” said a Hong Kong-based consultant familiar with the mainland’s power sector. “The merger would be a win-win.” He said the fact that SNPT’s chairman Wang Binghua was CPI’s ex-general manager would have helped the merger talks. Wang was a deputy head of CNNC prior to heading CPI. Set up in 2007, SNPT was one of 53 key state firms under direct administration by the central government. It was tasked to absorb power equipment major Westinghouse’s technology. It acted as the engineering, procurement and construction general contractor for building AP1000 nuclear plants on the mainland. With over 40 billion yuan of assets and close to 10,000 staff at the end of last year, SNPT has localised AP1000, improved upon it and is building its own CAP1400 demonstration project that would help the mainland realise its goal of winning third-generation nuclear projects overseas. News of SNPTC and CPI’s merger followed close on the heels of last month’s merger of China CNR and CSR, the nation’s two rolling stock makers. They are part of Beijing’s ongoing push to reduce the number of state firms within one industry and consolidate them so as to improve their competitiveness. Beijing seeks to boost the nation’s presence in technology-intensive sectors and cut down on low value-adding manufacturing where its cost competitiveness has been eroded. The mainland, which has the world’s largest fleet of nuclear reactors under construction and planning, aims to be a major player in the overseas nuclear plants construction market where it has cost advantages. In December, industry consultant Xu Lianyi was quoted as saying plans have been submitted to the central government to merge CNNC and CGN. With total assets of 617 billion yuan, CPI is the mainland’s third largest nuclear power projects operator after CGN and CNNC.
