Mitsubishi Heavy, Nippon Steel to merge units

TOKYO: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel will merge their bridge-building businesses to better compete in a market that has halved in the past decade amid a crackdown on bid-rigging and lower state spending on public works, a newspaper reported.

Shares of Mitsubishi Heavy and Nippon Steel, which count on bridge-making for a small part of their overall revenues, were virtually unchanged.