Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Information

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (三菱重工業株式会社, Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō Kabushiki-kaisha, informally MHI) is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group.

MHIs products include aerospace components, air conditioners, aircraft, automotive components, forklift trucks, hydraulic equipment, machine tools, missiles, power generation equipment, printing machines, ships and space launch vehicles. Through its defense-related activities, it is the worlds 23rd-largest defense contractor measured by 2011 defense revenues and the largest based in Japan.

In 1857, at the request of the Tokugawa Shogunate, a group of Dutch engineers began work on the Nagasaki Yotetsusho, a modern, Western-style foundry and shipyard near the Dutch settlement of Dejima, at Nagasaki. This was renamed Nagasaki Seitetsusho in 1860, and construction was completed in 1861. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the shipyard was placed under control of the new Government of Meiji Japan. The first dry dock was completed in 1879.

In 1884, Yataro Iwasaki, the founder of Mitsubishi, leased the Nagasaki Seitetsusho from the Japanese government, renamed it the Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works and entered the shipbuilding business on a large scale. Iwasaki purchased the shipyards outright in 1887. In 1891, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Yokohama Machinery Works was started as Yokohama Dock Company, Ltd. Its main business was ship repairs, to which it added ship servicing by 1897. The works was renamed Mitsubishi Shipyard of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha in 1893 and additional dry docks were completed in 1896 and 1905.

The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Shimonoseki Shipyard and Machinery Works was established in 1914. It produced industrial machinery and merchant ships.

The Nagasaki company was renamed Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd. in 1917 and again renamed as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1934. It became the largest private firm in Japan, active in the manufacture of ships, heavy machinery, airplanes and railway cars. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries merged with the Yokohama Dock Company in 1935. From its inception, the Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyards were heavily involved in contracts for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The largest battleship Musashi was completed at Nagasaki in 1942. The company also housed the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, the Akunoura Engine Works, Mitsubishi Arms Plant, Mitsubishi Electric Shipyards, Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works, and Mitsubishi-Urakami Ordnance Works, which employed 90% of the citys labor force, and accounted for 90% of the citys industry. These connections made Nagasaki a legitimate target for strategic bombing during World War II by the Allied air forces, which later dropped an atomic bomb on the city on August 9, 1945. This attack, following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier, dealt a devastating blow to the Japanese leadership, contributing to the surrender of Japan six days later.

The Kobe Shipyard of Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha was established in 1905. The Kobe Shipyard merged with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1934. The Kobe Shipyard constructed the ocean liner Argentina Maru (later repurposed as the aircraft carrier Kaiyo), and the submarines the I-19 and I-25.

Following the dissolution of the zaibatsu after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, Mitsubishi divided into three companies. Mitsubishi Nagasaki became West Japan Heavy Industries, Ltd. The Nagasaki Shipyard was renamed Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., Ltd. in 1952. The Mitsubishi Kobe Shipyard became Central Japan Heavy Industries, Ltd. in 1950.

In 1964, the three independent companies from the 1950 break-up were merged again into one company under the name of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The Nagasaki works was renamed the Nagasaki Shipyard and Engine Works. The Kobe works was renamed the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - Kobe Shipyard and Machinery Works.

In 1970, MHIs automobile parts department became an independent company as Mitsubishi Motors.

In 1974, its Tokyo headquarters was targeted in a bombing that killed eight people.

MHI participated in a ¥540 billion emergency rescue of Mitsubishi Motors in January 2005, in partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group. As part of the rescue, MHI acquired ¥50 billion of Mitsubishi Motors stock, increasing its ownership stake to 15 percent and making the automaker an affiliate again.

In October 2009, MHI announced an order for up to 100 regional jets from the United States-based airline Trans States Holdings.

MHI entered talks with Hitachi in August 2011 about a potential merger of the two companies, in what would have been the largest merger between two Japanese companies in history. The talks subsequently broke down and were suspended.

In November 2012, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi agreed to merge their thermal power generation businesses into a joint venture to be owned 65% by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and 35% by Hitachi. The joint venture began operations in February 2014.

In June 2014 Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced their formation of joint ventures to bid for Alstoms troubled energy and transportation businesses (in locomotives, steam turbines, and aircraft engines). A rival bid by General Electric (GE) has been criticized by French government sources, who consider Alstoms operations as a "vital national interest" at a moment when the French unemployment level stands above 10% and some voters are turning towards the conservative party.

MHI has aerospace facilities in Nagoya, Aichi, Komaki, Aichi and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

In the 1950s the company began to re-enter the aerospace industry in earnest. Along with other major Japanese companies it was involved in design and production of the NAMC YS-11, the first Japanese airliner to enter production after World War II. In 1956 work started on the design of the Mitsubishi MU-2, which became the companys first postwar aircraft design.

In the defense sector, MHI has produced jet fighters for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and anti-submarine helicopters for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, as well as aero-engines, missiles and torpedoes. It produced North American F-86 Sabre, Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighters. It manufactured 139 Mitsubishi F-15J fighter aircraft from 1981 and produced 200 Sikorsky S-70 family Mitsubishi H-60 helicopters from 1989, in both cases under license production. The company also plays an important role in the Japanese Ballistic Missile Defense System program.

In the space systems sector, MHI is the producer of the H-IIA and H-IIB launch vehicles, Japans main rockets, and provides launch services to JAXA related to the launch vehicles. The company is also involved in the International Space Station program.

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