Dive Brief:
- Japanese company Hitachi Zosen plans to expand its waste-to-energy (WTE) business into South Asia and the Middle East through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
- The company has set aside 40 billion yen (approximately $389 million) for M&A as part of a three-year plan that ends in March 2017.
- In an interview with Bloomberg, President Takashi Tanisho said that much of that money hasn't been used yet and the company is currently looking at multiple opportunities.
Dive Insight:
Though Hitachi Zosen is more well-known for its shipbuilding heritage and engineering prowess, the company been involved in the waste sector for years. It first opened a WTE facility in Osaka in 1965 and acquired the Swiss company AE&E Inova AG in 2010. According to reporting by Bloomberg, the two companies have now won orders for more than 840 facilities across the world.
Hitachi Zosen currently offers engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance services for these facilities. Tanisho has said he's interested in expanding to business planning and waste collection as well.
While WTE is still less common in the U.S., it continues to grow throughout the world. The technology is an integral part of Europe's waste infrastructure and is expanding rapidly in certain parts of Asia. China plans to build 300 WTE facilities within the next three years, including one in Shenzhen that has been billed as the world's largest.
