Mitsubishi Heavy plans to build more gas turbines in the US, Nikkei reports

The plan would shift the company's question in American orders from where its turbines are sourced to where they are made.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plans to raise gas turbine production in the United States, Nikkei reports, a step that would put more of the company's turbine output inside the country it is trying to sell to.

That changes the nature of its position. Until now the question for Mitsubishi Heavy has been where its turbines are sourced. If the report is right, the question becomes where they are made, and that bears directly on how it competes for American orders against rivals that already build at home.

How much it matters depends on two things the report does not settle: the scale of the expansion and the speed at which it arrives. A modest addition to existing capacity would leave the company a supplier that happens to assemble locally. A large, early one would make it a domestic producer in a market where proximity to the customer counts for a great deal. Until Mitsubishi Heavy puts numbers to the plan, the report is an intention, and the order book is what will show whether it is more than that.