October 22, 2008 Chairman Yano's regular press conference

(Moderator)

Then we will start a regular conference.

(Chairman)

Hello everyone.

First is an overview of the business for September.
Toll revenue in September was 6.8% of the same month last year. The breakdown is 8.6% for high speed and 15.0% for general pay. Expressway has been affected by the price reduction of Expressway in "Urgent Comprehensive Measures for Realization of Safety" from September 16th, and it has decreased revenue due to the increase in the discount amount accompanying the spread of ETC. It was The total decrease in revenue from social experiments was about 2.2 billion yen in September, but it is expected that the country will bear the amount excluding the increase in revenue due to the inducement effect, and that amount will eventually recover. Even if that amount comes back, it is about -3%. General charges increased year-on-year due to the suspension of Seisho BP traffic and Odawara-Atsugi Road free traffic due to typhoons last year. The figures are also shown when Seisho BP and Odawara-Atsugi Road are excluded.
Passenger traffic increased 1.2% year-on-year. High speed is minus 2.9%, general pay is plus 21.6%. This also has the influence of Seisho BP and Odawara-Atsugi Road. Excluding that, plus 1.2% becomes minus 1.9%, as shown in the table.
If there is no ETC discount amount, the fee income is 63 billion yen, minus 2.5% compared to the same month of the previous year, and the ETC discount rate is 25.4%.

The construction situation has not changed from the previous month.

Next, I have announced the successful bid rate every month, but since the situation in contracts has changed, such as the number of cases that have been unsuccessful in recent years, I think that I will analyze and convey a more detailed trend I'll let you know as a quarterly analysis. This month is just October, so I will explain the summary of the first half later.
The monthly successful bid rate can be seen on the website as before, so I would appreciate it if you could refer to that as well.

Next is the use situation of ETC. Compared to the latest between October 3rd and 9th, between September 5th and 11th, the utilization rate increased from 76.5% to 77.3% by 0.8 points. Weekdays were + 0.9%, holidays were + 0.7%, and there are many private uses on holidays, but I think that this also has steadily exceeded 70%.
The cumulative number of on-board units installed is 21.06 million.

Regarding the SA situation, it was 99.3% of the previous year's level, and the cumulative total was 2.9%. This is a breakdown of minus 3%, but the food and beverage department has 98.7%, the product sales department has 101.6%, the service department has 88.6%, the gasoline department has 96.0%, and the advertising department has a small amount of 141.2%.
The above is the current status of the business.

Next, I will explain the topics. "Bid status and analysis". As I mentioned earlier, I will report the first half. The number of successful bids from April to September is 117, and the average winning bid rate is 84.2%. 39 bids have failed. In addition to this, the open call for quote type consultation method, which started in June of this year, has three cases, and the construction technology competition type with special conditions, which starts in May, has one successful bid.
Speaking along the table, Table 1 shows the average successful bid rate by month. Table 2 shows the average successful bid rates for 2007 and 2008. I mentioned earlier that it was 84.2% as of the end of September, but the percentage of successful bidders for steel bridge superstructure work is as high as 92.5%. This is due to a construction order that requires advanced technology, such as a junction construction that crosses an in-service Expressway, and the tender price tends to be high.
The tunnel construction accounted for 73.7% and the painting work accounted for 61.3%, but I think this is the result of competitiveness because there are more bidders than other types of work. In the case of tunnels, the average is 10 companies, and the average number of painting works is 19 companies.
Table 3 shows the occurrence of low bids every year. It decreased from 45.2% in FY2006 to about 30% in FY2007 and FY2008. Based on the situation of low bids in fiscal 2006, we introduced a low bid priority survey system as a damping measure from last February.
Table 4 shows the situation of bad bids. The bad bids from 2007 to 2008 increased compared to 2006. This is pavement work related to intensive work, steel bridge superstructure work with Expressway closure, expansion device, joint, replacement work for it, road repair work for obstacle replacement work, passage construction at toll gate, It occurs in such a place. As a countermeasure, we are adopting a construction technology competition type and open call for participants type quotation method that can contract even if the contract limit price is exceeded. This is the method that I have explained in each case.

Next, an extension of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expwy opening commemoration discount. This is today's announcement. As you know, we are offering the all-line opening commemorative discount by the end of October, but we will continue to extend this until December 31 for two months this year, which is exactly the same as before. Is to continue. Although it is written in the discount amount column, there is no overlapping application with the ETC time zone discount, and the one with the largest discount amount of all discounts will be applied.
The Shirakawago IC and the Hida Kiyomi IC opened, and even if we look only at the new service section, it has been used by an average of 10,000 customers per day. Thank you for your patronage The idea is to continue.

The following is what I already announced on October 2nd from the Nagoya Regional Head Office, but what I just said was just starting to progress, so I will repeat it, but I will report it.
Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway Nogifu Yamato IC to Shirotori IC is a 4-lane switching construction. Starting on October 16th, on July 18th, the four lanes between Hirugagadake PA and Gujo-Hachiman IC have already been completed, but this Gifu Yamato IC and Shirotori IC are also under construction to complete in 2008. I have been. From 16th, we switched to the new lane for the In-bound line. I think that this has eliminated face-to-face traffic and improved safety.
As you know, the head-on collision accident occurred in Hirayama tunnel on July 27, 2004, the lives of seven people and there is an accident that was to sacrifice, I mean've been through an extensive 4-lane, successively, Shirotori It is supposed to be completed until the IC.
Continuing, the two-way traffic has ended, but we have carried out day and night continuous restrictions such as paving work for slupping parts, installation of median strips and signs, and addition of lighting in tunnels, and 4 lanes around the middle of February next year I would like to do my best so that you can use it at. I have attached a document about the construction, so I hope you can see it.

Next is the fourth topic, which is also a new announcement today, but it is a measure to implement speed control measures for ETC lanes.
We have 226 toll gates with ETC lanes, but with the aim of improving safety and security, we are going to take measures to strengthen speed control so that the opening and closing bar can be opened at the proper timing.
As you know, we have requested various traffic at speeds of 20 km / h or less, but many drivers are exceedingly large, and we thought that this could lead to a serious accident. From November of last year, we have been taking speed control measures sequentially in the Kanazawa Regional Head Office office and 30 ETC lanes at three toll gates in the three prefectures of Hokuriku. So, as you can see in the list, we will proceed from November 25th to December 12th.
Today, I have Hino, the Regional Head Office president, about the situation I tried in Kanazawa, so I will ask Hino to explain from here.

 

(Hino Regional Head Office President)

I am Hino from the Kanazawa Regional Head Office. I will explain based on the picture (while showing the picture of the ETC lane).
Although it is the content of speed control measures, as you can see in the document at hand, when the vehicle passes through the ETC lane and normally passes through the communication area, it is the start control bar, the opening and closing bar, but the system that opens is. Currently, when it normally passes through the communication area, a command is issued to open the opening / closing bar immediately, and it takes about 0.5 seconds from the beginning to the end of opening. It is the current situation that there is too much margin in timing, or it may be too fast, and this is too fast, so I have to do something, so first of all, the material at hand As the first step, we conducted the first trial at the Tsuruga Toll Gate on the Hokuriku Expressway on November 5, last year. We will continue to do two operations in Ishikawa prefecture and Toyama prefecture, one from March 3, and from April 7, there are 30 toll gates in 3 prefectures in Hokuriku, and nearly 70 lanes, but they are fully deployed. .
As a result, in terms of speed, the average speed was about 32 km within the Kanazawa Regional Head Office, but after April 7, the latest situation in September is about 5 km, about 5 km from 32 km to 27 km There is a slowdown.
And the ratio of fast vehicles that are over 40 km or more, about 15% of the cars were over before the countermeasures, but it decreased to about 3%, so the speed also decreased significantly The situation is that Also, next to this lane, there is a booth where general vehicles temporarily stop at the toll booth, but the speed difference with that booth has almost disappeared due to this measure, and I do not know which one to enter. Therefore, when entering and leaving the lane, trade-offs and interruptions are very smooth, traffic flow is improved, and it is difficult for accidents and major accidents to occur.
Although it is easy, it is the situation from the trial on November 5th at the Kanazawa Regional Head Office to the full deployment of the Hokuriku Expressway from April 7th.

(Chairman)

If you have any questions later, I'll leave him alone so I'd appreciate it.

Then, we are giving out information papers. This event is designed to be viewed on November 5th in this Nagoya area, so we would like to invite you to join us and see the situation. I would like to further enhance safety through these measures, and I would like to ask for your continued support.

The fifth topic is the start of operation of "Chuo Expressway Expressway Suisui Mobile", which was announced at the Hachioji Regional Head Office at the same time today. Therefore, although it is the same in terms of time, the main purpose is to carry out at the Hachioji Regional Head Office, so the main body is the Hachioji Regional Head Office. By registering your mobile phone e-mail address and travel plan with this "Chuo Expressway Expressway Suisui Mobile", you can carry the date and time of your travel plan, the traffic congestion prediction of the section you are using, and the estimated travel time at your desired time. It is a service that delivers by phone mail. This "Chuo Expressway Expressway Suisui Mobile" predicts traffic congestion based on the traffic jam results for the past three years, but real-time information is linked to "Visual Highway Telephone", so you can view it there. The mechanism is as per the document. The target sections are Takaido IC to Kobuchizawa IC and Otsuki JCT to Kawaguchiko IC. Starting from here, I would like to consider a broader development if the situation is favorable in the future.

The sixth topic is the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway / Tokai-Kanjo Expressway night closure. I announced it from the Nagoya Regional Head Office on October 8th, but since it is finally near, I will inform you again. This is a temporary two-lane, two-way traffic section, which aims to reduce the impact on customers as much as possible, so it will be closed at night when traffic volume is low. Periodic inspection of equipment, replacement of lamps, and cleaning. We need to cooperate with the drivers, but since it is absolutely necessary work, we will proceed according to the schedule shown in this leaflet. There is a section between Hida Kiyomi IC and Shirakawago IC that just opened in July in this section, but work in this section has a lane marking to separate the upper and lower lines to prevent U-turns. It will be installed, and no major accidents have occurred, but we will do it to improve safety. We will also install additional signs to meet the demand for easier-to-understand guide signs for Hida Kawai PA.

The 7th is also a night traffic closure on Kiseido, which was also announced on October 8. This section is also a two-way street, so we will close it at night and perform maintenance work.

Finally, this is a matter for today's announcement, as it is the first restaurant / menu contest in NEXCO Central Japan. It will be held at 45 SA / PA restaurants, and we are planning to release a regional menu full of local colors from November 1st with the keyword "local production for local consumption". The first screening will be conducted in November, and 7 products will be selected from each block, and 8 products will be finalized in December. This is the final examination by requesting Mr. Yukio Hattori, who is the chairman of Hattori Gakuen, to become the chairman.

This concludes my explanation.

 

(Moderator)

Then, thank you if you have any questions.

(Reporter)

Today, the ruling party has agreed on a financial resource for additional price reduction of Expressway, and the usage is not specified, but it is said that the price will be reduced with the resources of 500 billion yen, but this is Nakanihon High Speed Management Could you please explain the effect on your business?

(Chairman)

In terms of our ability to bear, we think that the base ETC discount is the limit, and I am saying that I would like to prepare new financial resources for further discounts. In that respect, I would like to welcome any proposal that was made based on such considerations. We haven't heard the details yet, so I can't say anything. If the new discount system requires a large amount of money, we would like you to make it as easy as possible. When it comes to the question about whether or not it will immediately affect the company's management, I don't think there will be any particular impact in terms of numbers, but if it is a measure that pleases the people who use the road, It is a very welcome thing, and I think that if traffic volume increases, the merit of management will come out as it is.

(Reporter)

Toll revenue will be the source of repayment of the debt of 40 trillion yen, but there are plans such as half price as reported in newspaper reports and plans to free it that some opposition parties insist, and when will it be free? I think it will disappear at all, but what about that point?

(Chairman)

I understand that discussions are proceeding on the assumption that the repayment deadline will not be changed. Therefore, if the final deadline for repayment and 45 years after privatization will change, it will be different from the purpose of privatization, so I think that a solid consensus is needed. Therefore, although there have been various discussions on fees, we would like to hope that we will clarify the financial resources and then consider them.

(Reporter)

From September 16th, how about the evaluation of the numbers by discounting the price, whether it is higher or lower than expected?

(Chairman)

Since it has just begun, there is a point to how much it can be evaluated, but I feel that there is a sign that there is a reaction. I tried to check it from 22:00 to 0:00, which is a 30% discount on weekday nights, and when I measured the traffic volume from Ichinomiya on the Meishin Expressway to Gifu Hashima, it increased by 17% in two hours. did. Since it is a measurement in only a short period, I'm not sure if it will be the same in the future, but I would like to continue measuring it and judge the effect.

(Reporter)

The number of passing vehicles is 101.2% compared to the previous year. Do you have the increase since the 16th of last month?

(Chairman)

I haven't figured out that much, but I think it has had a positive impact. Then, in the case of our company, Shin-Meishin Expressway and Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway are newly opened, so I think that it is conditionally blessed in that sense, but I understand the changes accompanying the rate discount from September 16 I have not. I'll be able to report to you in the future.

(Moderator)

If there are no other questions, we will end the 36th regular press conference.
Thank you for being busy today.

(Chairman)

Thank you very much.