| Japan’s giant energy trading houses would consider helping to pay for a nuclear rollout in Australia in return for decades-long investment returns, industry insiders say.sparked a flurry of conversations in Tokyo this week around how Japan’s largest power players could become involved.
Energia Group and J-Power are constructing new nuclear reactor plants in north-west and central Japan, while Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kansai Electric Power have recently reopened plants that were shuttered following theMike Newman, former trade commissioner for the NSW government, said Japanese investment houses like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have investment strategies like Canada’s Brookfield.
“Developing nuclear in Australia would certainly pique their interest,” Ross Gregory, partner at New Electric Partners and chairman of AustCham Korea, said. “They’ve got the know-how and the track record.” In early June, the Australian government ordered China-linked investors to sell their shares of Perth-based Northern Minerals, a miner of rare-earth minerals used in magnets for EV motors and missiles.“But they could build it in record time and within some semblance of the budget,” the dealmaker said on the condition of anonymity.