However, the company would need to be convinced that prospective success in the marine market justified establishing such an agreement. In order to be more confident about its prospects the company believes that it needs to break into the cruise sector. Only once they have broken into this sector and proved that their gas turbines offer a good alternative to diesel engines and gas turbines supplied by competitors, would Alstom Power consider granting licences for its turbines, and that may take another 8-10 years.
2.3 After Sales Service
Within the Alstom group, sales and service operations exist in more than 60 countries world-wide, often serving more than one country and 141 in total. The network is split into four geographic regions: Europe; Americas; Asia; and Africa/Middle East. During 1999/2000 new offices were opened in the Baltic States and in Central Asia in order to strengthen Alstom's coverage in these emerging markets.
In Japan the group's office is located at the following address:
Alstom Group
3-4 Minatojima-Nakamachi
2-Chome chuo-Ku
Kobe 650.0046
Japan
Tel: + 81 78 303 5020
Fax: + 81 78 303 5781
In terms of Alstom Power specifically, most of the service personnel are based in Sweden, with a few others placed in strategic locations elsewhere. The main area of expertise of service personnel is in computer systems and as such they can deal with gas turbines whatever their application. There is therefore no need for a separate marine service network because of this, and in any event the low number of marine gas turbines in operation could never justify a dedicated service network.
2.4 Supply Capacity
Gas turbines are made at the company's factory in Finspong, Sweden. The production areas previously given over to making turbines for the nuclear power industry are now available for serving other markets, including marine. If there were any capacity constraints at Finspong, Alstom Power would be able to move production to other factories, or at least have its other factories make some of the key components.
