Air Water held a round-table press conference of May on the energy business.

Mr. Toshihiko Akatsu, executive director and chief of energy company of AWI said, “The modality of energy in Japan will be transformed due to the current power shortage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident. There will be more business opportunities for gas energies like LPG and natural gas. This year is very important when there occurs a change in the current rip.” He showed a willingness to strengthen energy business more actively.

In the conference AWI explained its medium-term business plan targeting one trillion yen company, together with the present position of energy business, the outline of segments and organization and the corporate policy of future development. The round-table press conference in this timing was held with a view to the expected reduction of dependence on nuclear power generation, energy saving, enhancement of electricity saving measures and shifting to natural gas, which will be probably included in METI’s “Review of Basic Energy Plan” to be announced in the coming summer.

The executive director regarded the drastic review of basic energy plan of our country to make a historical turning-point of the LPG business.

Five business segments for reinforcement of the company are ①fuel conversion (heavy oil→gas), ②hybrid hot-water and heating system, ③new business materials, ④energy solution and ⑤LNG tank truck. Regarding the fuel conversion, we have confirmed our conversion policy for a nation-wide deployment not limiting the Hokkaido region. Furthermore, in order to enhance the existing business, we target to double our sales of the hybrid hot-water and heating system (trade name: VIVIDO) which is selling well now. As for the LNG-related business, we target to expand our sales with 15.7t Monocoque LNG Tank Truck as its core item to be launched in the coming summer.

For our new business materials we have two drawing cards of LPG bulk lorry and the mobile power supply unit. The former with the maximum load capacity of 2.3 to 3.5t has been developed in tie-up with an automobile body manufacturer and will be marketed this summer. We have developed the mobile power supply unit of LPG specifications for the first time in Japan by making the most of the technical know-how of Hokkaido Shatai which we acquired last year. We are going to put on market a 125KVA type in the coming summer.