Westinghouse to Exit Bankruptcy 'Very, Very, Quickly'

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Westinghouse Electric Company (Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania) is set to exit bankruptcy in the coming months, but doubt shrouds who will own the company in the future.

Chief Executive Officer Jose Gutierrez told the World Nuclear Association Symposium that the company will be "leaner, stronger and more competitive." While not giving an exact date for the company's emergence from bankruptcy, he said it will be "very, very quickly." He said that the Chapter 11 process has been returning the company to a focus on its "core business" of nuclear fuel, engineering, component supply and decontamination and decommissioning. He revealed that the company will no longer offer plant construction services.

"During this process, we have been delivering on all our commitments," Gutierrez told delegates. "We have not stopped any of our processes--all our factories and services centres have been working--and in the USA and Europe we have been delivering all our products and services without any kind of interruption. We are coming back to our previous business model that has been in engineering and procurement. That is where we have the right skills, the right abilities and right capacities."

On the Chapter 11 process he claimed that the company is "in a much better situation than many of you could think." However, the company will undoubtedly be hit by the decision by Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) to terminate construction of two new units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Power Station. It cited the bankruptcy of Westinghouse in March and other market conditions for its decision. For additional information, see September 5, 2017, article - Summer Nuclear Units' Cancellation Followed by Two Other Terminations.

He acknowledged the construction issues at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Power Station in South Carolina. "In 30 years, we didn't have any nuclear construction projects in the United States. That means we had a lack of recent knowledge and experience to support new build in the USA," he admitted.

Westinghouse is a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) and is facing possible sale as Toshiba struggles to overcome massive financial concerns.

Industrial Info has been tracking the potential impact of Chapter 11 on more than $31 billion of the company's U.S. nuclear projects. For related information, see March 27, 2017, article - Westinghouse's Bankruptcy Unlikely to Affect more than $31 Billion in U.S. Nuclear Projects.

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