Japan Steel Works Ltd., a maker of nuclear reactor parts for customers from Areva SA to Toshiba Corp., will shift sales to nonatomic energy equipment and may cut idled capacity as the Fukushima disaster curbs orders.
Japan will freeze construction of nuclear reactors and China is likely to delay new orders by a year, slashing component purchases from nuclear plant builders, President Ikuo Sato said in an interview at the company's headquarters in Tokyo. The company will focus more on wind turbines, steel pipes for natural gas and rotor shafts used in thermal power plants to make up for the shortfall, he said.
Japan's nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986, coincides with Sato completing an ¥80 billion expansion at its Muroran factory in Hokkaido. The disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has prompted governments to reconsider the future of atomic energy, hampering efforts by Japan Steel Works to expand nuclear operations.