Xinhua Net from Tokyo reported on January 24 that Japan Toshiba Corp and the US General Electric Company announced on the 24th to expand strategic cooperation in the field of thermal power equipment and plan to set up a joint venture to jointly develop and sell high-tech thermal power equipment.
This is another major integration movement in global heavy motor industry since MHI and Hitachi  announced the merger of their thermal power business in November last year.
Toshiba expressed in a statement released in the same day that changes in power structure and the surge in electricity demand in emerging economies since the US shale gas was exploited excessively and Japanese nuclear accident happened will make the global thermal power equipment demand continue to increase.
According to the statement, Toshiba and General Electric will focus on strategic cooperation in R & D and global sales of energy-saving and high-efficient gas - steam combined cycle power plant. In the gas turbine generator industry of core equipment in thermal power generation, GE occupies the global market share of around 35%, Toshiba is leading technology in steam generators, power plant construction and system control and other fields.
According to a forecast from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, by 2035, the global power generation equipment investment will be about 850 trillion yen (US $ 9.5 trillion), of which thermal power installed capacity will be increased by 70% than that in 2009. It is estimated that at that time more than 2000 large-scale thermal power stations with power generation capacity over 10 million kilowatts will be newly built, the main of the power stations shall have high combustion efficiency and less carbon dioxide emissions.
Currently, GE, Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries occupy 90% of global market share in large-size gas turbine generator.  The impact from the successive  integration of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries with Hitachi, General Electric and Toshiba in thermal power business will involve Siemens and the heavy motor industry in China and India etc..