Rapid industry growth, global ambitions of Chinese firms offer opportunities, but challenges persist: expert
Nuclear firms from the UK are seeking opportunities in the fast-growing Chinese market, offering Chinese companies services ranging from nuclear decommissioning, management of waste and transport of nuclear materials, participants at an industry conference in Beijing revealed on Wednesday.
A fast-growing nuclear industry in China and the "go global" strategy of domestic nuclear firms under the country's "One Belt, One Road" initiative do offer a lot of opportunities for foreign companies, but challenges remain, an industry expert noted.
"We are looking to provide services to China to prepare for decommissioning and waste management in the next 10 years," Armand Kirk, campaign director in China for Amec Foster Wheeler, told the 20th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference being held in Beijing through Saturday.
Amec on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corp to collaborate on the deployment of high-temperature reactors in the UK and other countries, according to a press release sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
Transportation for the nuclear sector in China could also offer opportunities for UK firms with such expertise.
"We spent the last two years forming some relationships with some companies [in China]… and out of all the discussions, transportation is clearly significant among them," John Mulkern, head of sales for International Nuclear Services (INS), told the Global Times on Wednesday. And INS is planning to take advantage of that opportunity, he said.
Safety instrumentation and control is another area of interest for some UK companies in the Chinese market.
"We are providing safety instrumentation and control solutions to nuclear power plants in China," Romain Desgeorge, communication and marketing manager for civil nuclear instrumentation and control at Rolls-Royce Civil Nuclear SAS, said at the conference.
Desgeorge noted that Rolls-Royce is investing more money in research and development to improve efficiency of its products and looking for Chinese partners to collaborate in the area.
In a letter to Wednesday's nuclear conference, Premier Li Keqiang said the Chinese government places high importance on the development of nuclear energy, and will cooperate with countries on the industry on an equal and win-win basis, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
In addition to the fast growth of the nuclear sector in China, new business opportunities will also be generated from the "go global" strategy of Chinese nuclear firms, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times Wednesday.
"We understand the UK regulator, and so we would like to work with the Chinese companies to help them to get their technology improve to the UK standards," Paul Gilmour, director of the nuclear generation division at Nuvia, told the Global Times.
In a signing ceremony, which coincided with President Xi Jinping's State visit to the UK last October, China General Nuclear Power Corp announced in London that it would join French company EDF to build new reactors at Hinkley in Somerset and Bradwell, and construct and operate its own reactors at Bradwell.
Challenges remain
However, these opportunities are also accompanied by challenges and barriers for the UK firms.
"It's certainly not a piece of cake coming into a brand new, very different market," Catriona Knox, commercial counselor at the British Embassy in Beijing, said on the sidelines of Wednesday's conference.
"You need to have a local partner, there are different sets of regulations, different customers you need to build relationship with and those relationships need to be built over time, the trust needs to be built over time, so companies do have to be patient in that journey," Knox said.
But Knox noted that UK and Chinese nuclear firms can collaborate on many areas and create a win-win situation for both sides.
Lin, the expert from Xiamen University, said cooperation in the nuclear sector between the UK and China will remain on the broad agenda, but the process will take some time.
"Cooperation will continue, but there certainly will be issues here and there," said Lin. "Because unlike other sectors, nuclear power is still a controversial area where half of the people want it, but the other half don't want it."
