Mitsubishi Heavy may build U.S. wind turbine plant

Mitsubishi is currently tussling with General Electric over wind turbine patents, with the GE this month filing patent suits against the Japanese company in a U.S. Court.

GE, the biggest wind turbine maker in the United States, earlier lost a case against Mitsubishi filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Mitsubishi's plans call for a wind turbine manufacturing plant to be built in Fort Smith, Arkansas, with an investment cost of $100 million.

"We'll make a final investment decision after seeing how demand recovers, probably in the second half of the 2010 financial year," said a spokesman for the company.

Mitsubishi, which holds some 7 percent of the U.S. market, sells about 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) worth of wind turbines a year, with 80-90 percent of them sold in the United States.

Mitsubishi Heavy's shares were 0.6 percent higher at 320 yen, compared with a 0.4 percent decline for the benchmark Nikkei average .

(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo and Yuko Inoue; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)