On September 2, the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) announced officially the result of its research titled “Analysis of Influences of the electric rate hike on manufacturers residing in each prefecture” following the rise of power rate to make up for the increase of fuel costs due to the consequent use of petroleum and natural gas power generation (heat power plants) on account of the shutdown of the nuclear power plants affected by the nuclear accidents accompanying the Great East Japan Earthquake (the Quake Disaster).

According to the research, estimating the increased electricity cost throughout the year per employee of manufacturers to be about 52,000 yen based on a national average, the increased burden of all manufacturers of whole Japan amounts to 402 billion yen which corresponds to the wages of about 94,000 persons.

On a segmental basis, the research tells that the influence varies substantially depending upon the fields. The influence is extremely serious in the power consuming industries like steelmaking, chemical industry, ceramic and soil/stone industries above all, and that the overhead increase of employees in electricity charges throughout the year is estimated to exceed 500,000 yen in these segments (on a national average). It follows that the overhead increase burden amounts to about 620,000 yen in the steelmaking industry, the cement industry to about 600,000 yen and the compressed/liquefied gas industry to about 2.16 million yen. It shows that the burden of the industrial gas industry is overwhelming the others.

Furthermore, on the assumption that the operation of nuclear power plant remains suspended and more rate hikes take place fearing zero nuclear generation, the whole manufacturers all over Japan would suffer much more burden of increased power rates (comparing with the rate before the Quake Disaster) rising up to somewhere between 630 and 750 billion yen.

The research estimates that an employee’s overhead increase of electric charge (on a national average) will exceed a million yen per year, and points out the overhead figures of employees in the compressed/liquefied gas industry which increased by 3.48 to 4.18 million yen three times more than each of the other industries (steel industry: 1.05 to 1.28 million yen; cement industry: 1.05 to 1.31 million yen).

For information, JIMGA has made it public that the burden of increase in the electric charge amounted to 31.3 billion yen as of June of this year in comparison with the figure in April 2008.