NEXCO CENTRAL (Central Nippon Expressway Company Limited)




January 20, 2010 Chairman Yano's regular press conference

Conference Summary

(Moderator)

Now that it's time, let's start the regular press conference. Well, then, I'm looking forward to working with you.


(Chairman)

NEXCO CENTRAL Hironori Yano, Chairman and CEO

happy New Year. It's a little late, but I'm looking forward to working with you this year.
I will get into the main subject immediately. First of all, it is the current situation of the business for December, but although it is on the Expressway, toll revenue is 13.8% lower than the same month of the previous year, highway 13.4% lower, and Yuchi 17.7% lower. The number of passing vehicles increased by 2.6% compared to the same month the year before. The breakdown is 1.7% for high speed and 5.9% for Ischi. The reason why the number of passing cars is increasing and the toll revenue is decreasing is the same as before. This is the reason why various price discounts are affected. Then, although it is the ETC discount amount, it was 26,785 million yen this month, and income without the ETC discount would be 65,376 million yen. This is a 49.8% increase from the discount amount of 17,884 million yen for the same month last year. It is 4.4% increase in fee income without ETC discount. The ETC discount rate will be 41.0%.

As I always say, the traffic volume by vehicle type is 106.3% for light vehicles, 101.2% for regular vehicles, 99.5% for medium-sized vehicles, 103.0% for large-sized vehicles, and 108.6% for oversized vehicles compared with the same month of the previous year. The number of medium-sized cars and above has come to over 100% compared to last year, but it will be compared with the time when the traffic volume once decreased, so I think it is not so good compared to the year before last. Although it is slightly higher than last year, I think that the situation of logistics such as trucks has not improved so much.

As for the construction situation, this is the same as what we reported last month. Part of the Ken-O Road will open on February 27, as planned.

Next, regarding the status of ETC, the number of vehicles used is 111.1% compared to the same month the year before, and the average daily usage rate is 85.1%. Looking at the last week, 85.2% from December 4th to 10th last year, but 86.4% from January 8th to 14th, an increase of about 1%. This is the first time that both have exceeded 86%. It means that the usage rate is increasing little by little. Since then, as of the end of December, the number of on-board devices installed has increased by 430,000 compared to the end of November, bringing the total to 29.47 million. The number of vehicle-mounted devices installed has been increasing at around 400,000 units, but the trend remains the same in December.

Despite the situation in the service area, sales were 11,147 million yen, 106.7% of the same month of the previous year. Looking at the breakdown, the total is 101.0% for the food and beverage and product sales departments. The food and beverage department fell slightly to 99.5%, but the merchandise sales department was 101.9%, and both were 101.0%. The service sector is flat at 100%. In the gas station sector, it has increased to 130.8%. Although the quantity is 123.7%, the unit price has recently reversed from last year, and I would like to say regularly that it was 119 yen / L last year, but 126 yen / L this year. If you add the unit price difference of 7 yen, it will increase by 130.8%. The advertising department originally has a small scale and the monthly fluctuation is large, but it is 158.3%. The above is the current status of the business.

Next, I will report four topics from now on. One is the bidding situation and its analysis, which we are reporting on a quarterly basis, but please refer to your document. First of all, as shown in Figure 1, this shows the average monthly successful bid rate for fiscal 2009. The number of successful bids from October to December is 77, and the average successful bid rate is 83.7%. The average winning bid rate from April to December is 83.3%. Table 1 shows the percentage of successful bids for each type of work from October to December. The rightmost column shows the successful bid rate up to September, and the fourth column from the right shows the successful bid rate from October to December, but I will explain only where there is a big difference, civil engineering Although the steel bridge superstructure has a slightly lower bid rate, it is because the technical difficulty is high and there was no type of construction to contract even if the contract price was exceeded. What kind of construction is a safe passage at a toll gate. On the other hand, electricity is increasing, but this is due to a new contract for reverse run prevention equipment construction, and we believe that the number of cases is large and the winning bid rate is high. In terms of electricity, there were 23 cases in total, of which 13 were reverse-direction prevention equipment construction. This construction has a high ratio of product costs to construction costs. Therefore, it has the features that there is little difference between the accumulated amount and the bid amount, and the winning bid rate does not decrease so much. Next, as shown in Figure 2, this shows the occurrence of low bids. The low bid rate from April to December is 52.0%. The situation where the incidence rate is around 50% has continued since December last year when the standard price for low bids was raised. However, due to the strengthening measures of the low bid priority survey that was newly introduced after June this year, the incidence of low bids below the 75% successful bid rate that is the subject of the survey is significantly reduced compared to before the introduction. . Before June, it was around 50%, but after June it was 20%, down about 60%. Figure 3 shows the situation of a bad bid. The number of malfunctions was 29 from April to December, and the malfunction rate was 10.4%. It can be said that it is about half that of the previous year. We believe that this is showing the effect of measures against bid slumps due to the application of open call for participants type quotation consultation methods. Even though it has been improved, we still have about 10% of bidding disorder, so we would like to carry out various measures to further reduce the incidence.

The second topic, the discount on the charge associated with the opening of the Ebina Interchange on the Ken-O Road O Expressway, has already been announced by the Tokyo Regional Head Office on the 18th, but we have prepared the materials for reference today. From the opening of February 27 to the end of March, all vehicles will be discounted regardless of the presence of ETC. The detailed contents are as per the document at hand.

The third topic, this is what we are announcing today. Starbucks Coffee will open on the ChuoExpwy Enakyo SA (Out-bound). This is the first time on a Expressway Gifu prefecture, and it seems that it is the first time to open a store in the Tono area of Gifu prefecture, including shopping centers in the city. Now there are 13 Starbucks. We call it Plat Park because it will be used not only by customers from the Expressway but also by local customers, but we plan to install 5 customer-only parking spaces for that purpose. I will. It is scheduled to open on the 19th of next month.

Lastly, I would like to tell you about the examples of environmentally friendly initiatives that I have reported every time. One is solar power generation, which is an implementation of power generation using natural energy. Although the construction of Route 2 in Nagoya is in progress, the excavation section between Takanee JCT and Nagoya-minami JCT is 12.7 km, but the section that uses the upper part of the louver is 5.7 km. It will be km. The amount of power generated is about 2,000kw, the panel area is about 14,000m2, and the generated power is planned to be supplied to lighting in the excavation section. 2,000kw is the largest in Japan on the Expressway, and the largest was the Suita IC in western Japan, which is 100kw, which is 20 times that. It is a construction period, but we have signed a contract on December 12th last year and will complete the construction by February 4th next year. Opening is in 2010, and the date of opening has not been decided yet, but we would like to proceed with solar power generation with such a construction schedule. Although it is a feature of the construction, as a support measure project of the New Energy Introduction Promotion Council, we will receive some subsidies and proceed with the construction. We believe that it is possible to reduce 43% of the total power consumption in this section. Annual CO2 reduction is about 956t-CO2, and electricity cost reduction is about 22 million yen / year. The electricity bill will be reduced by about 34%. As you know, there is a basic charge, so it won't drop as much as the amount of electricity.
Then, regarding hydropower, I explained the concept of this in September of last year, but I will report that the story has finally materialized and construction has started. It will be installed near the electrical room of the Hida tunnel Shirakawa mine entrance, and although the generated power is not so large as 50kw, the generated power will be supplied to the tunnel lighting. The construction period will be from December 10th to December 10th of this year, and it will take just one year. Hydroelectric power generation is the first initiative in Japan as a Expressway, and we believe that it is possible to reduce the amount of electricity purchased by approximately 410,000 kwh per year. This is to reduce approximately 30% of the annual lighting power used in the Hida Tunnel. The annual CO2 reduction is about 195t-CO2, and the electricity bill is about 4 million yen.
This is the end of the report.

 


(Moderator)

So I'd like to take your questions.


(Reporter)

It's solar power, but it's the largest, but how many other places are there?


(Chairman)

I think this is information that covers major Expressway but in our jurisdiction, Ashigara SA is 18kw, Dangozaka SA is 15kw, Ichihara SA in East Japan is 10kw, and Miki SA in West Japan is 20kw. . As for the Suita IC, which I talked about earlier, I heard that this is 100kw for the company building. There are such places on the Expressway.


(Reporter)

Is the louver the ceiling?


(Chairman)

There are beams across the excavation part, and there is a gap.


(Reporter)

Do you have any plans to increase the number of locations over the years?


(Chairman)

Although it has not been concreted so far, I will always have that idea as new roads are created, and I would like to do what I can.


(Reporter)

Another point is that this is a hydroelectric power plant that originates from Japan, but is there a plan to increase this in the future as well?


(Chairman)

Water is there in the conditions of is that full out, for example Shin-Tomei Expressway say whether it can be in, I think that is not the case. It requires a considerable amount of water, and the Hida tunnel was 70 tons in one minute when the water was the most out of the water. That made the construction very difficult. Currently it's around 40t. It's been a little calm and that's going on. If such a situation arises in the future, I think it will be the subject of consideration.


(Reporter)

I think that it is as it is because the conceptual diagram is also written, but there is a water tank that stores spring water, and there is a head of 10 m, which means that I turn a water wheel, but as I said, there is 40 tons of water per minute Does that mean?


(Chairman)

You may be able to do it under a few lesser conditions, but we haven't put it all that far.


(Reporter)

At the site, there is still 40t of water in about 1 minute, and it is calculated as 50kw.


(Chairman)

I agree.


(Reporter)

Regarding solar power generation, please tell us how much the installation cost and the total amount and subsidy because there is a subsidy. Please tell me if you have a reason to cut it to 5.7km out of 12.7km.


(Chairman)

Although it is a cost, the total construction cost is about 1.5 billion yen. The subsidy is 500 million yen. The burden on the company will be 1 billion yen. Then, since solar power generation is not useful in the shadow, we decide the location considering the geographical conditions and the amount of power generation required. These two rings are running north and south, and in that sense, they are in good condition. The beams run east and west, and if you put them on it, you can arrange them neatly toward the south. Although it is a good location condition, we set it to 5.7km, which is the maximum, considering that it is not suitable for all locations.


(Reporter)

How much does hydropower cost?


(Chairman)

It is about 100 million yen.


(Moderator)

This is the end of the regular press conference. Thank you very much.