The public company China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC, for its acronym in English) has acquired, through its subsidiary Neptu, engineering, Spanish Nusim, with headquarters in Seville and belongs to the business group Chemtrol. This has been confirmed this Thursday the agency Efe, the ceo of the latter company, Julio Revilla, who has not revealed the amount of the transaction. Revilla explained that the acquisition will allow to take advantage of the knowledge acquired by the Spanish firm in activities such as the treatment of radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, a sector, industrial expansion following the announcement of several european Governments, including Spain and Germany, to close their plants.
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Nusim is a company formed in 1982 and specializing in the design, engineering, installation, and maintenance of systems of processing of radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear power stations, as well as in the provision of radiation protection equipment. Your template has thirty engineers and specialists and their turnover has fluctuated in recent years between five and eight million euros. “It is a small company that has its added value in the technology,” says Revilla.
Revilla explains that the negotiations with the corporation of asian began in 2016, and that other chinese companies had shown their interest in acquiring Nusim. “The operation shows that Spanish companies have a lot of potential and can grow,” he adds. CNNC is one of the largest business groups of public ownership in China and the largest dedicated to the nuclear energy, which covers their entire production cycle, from uranium mining to the decommissioning of facilities, passing by the enrichment of the uranium, the construction and operation of nuclear power plants and the treatment and storage of radioactive waste.
According to has reported in its website, the purchase of Nusim is part of its international expansion plan to participate in projects in Europe, Africa and South america, including the dismantling of central europe, “with the clear intention to cooperate in the globalization of the entire industrial chain of the nuclear sector, improving the quality and efficiency of the nuclear industry in china in environmental protection”.
Beijing announced years ago, its commitment to nuclear energy as a key piece, along with renewables, to limit the use of fossil fuels —especially coal— and reduce pollution. China has 48 reactors in operation and another nine in construction, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. For 2030, the second world power is planning that 10% of its electricity comes from this source, compared with 4% today.
The ceo of Chemtrol has been assessed that the acquisition will allow Nusim expand their current activity in China and in other countries, as well as apply their knowledge in the dismantling of nuclear facilities, already compromised in several western countries, and that China has set from the year 2035. Also, he complained that this position of strength of Nusim not be able to take full advantage of “projects of scale” in Spain, for the “policy decisions taken to block its nuclear development”, according to Efe.
The business group Chemtrol, created in may of 1976 and is run by Revilla, maintains numerous business activities in sectors highly varied, from the exploitation of iberian pork products up to the equipment stage of theaters. Initially, the group specialized in the design, engineering, installation and maintenance of passive protection systems against fire, focusing on the nuclear power plants that were under construction in Spain, as Almaraz, Cáceres; Lemoniz, Asco I and II, Cofrentes, Trillo, Vandellos II, Garoña and Zorita. Also implemented facilities conventional thermal plants, petrochemical, water, cement, shipyard, off-shore and hospitals. Ran also projects in nuclear power plants, Italian and petrochemical in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with what they developed in the last years a strategy of international expansion.
Your shareholders is entirely in Spanish and linked, as in the case of Revilla, to persons directly connected with the management of the company. The central offices of Chemtrol located in Madrid, counting also with a delegation important in Andalusia, and trade delegations in many of the provinces of Spain.
This group employs more than 150,000 people, of which an important part works on the design and engineering required for its activities, with 23 institutes of design and research across the chinese territory.
