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Aerospace & Defense Industries

SpaceJet budget slashed 90% as Mitsubishi restructures other businesses

Moves on multiple fronts come as shares plunge to lowest in more than 35 years

 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is freezing its SpaceJet passenger jet program. (Photo by Koji Uema) 

TOKYO -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said on Thursday it was freezing its SpaceJet passenger jet program, slashing the annual budget to just one-tenth of current levels over the next three years and foregoing a plan to obtain regulatory approval in a dramatic scale-back of the project it hoped just a year ago would become a key revenue pillar.

Mitsubishi Heavy, a leading industrial conglomerate and Japan's top defense contractor, in May announced a budget cut for the program -- Japan's first for a passenger jet -- by half to 60 billion yen ($575 million). In a new three-year business plan for fiscal 2021-2023, announced on Friday, the company plans to reduce it to less than 7 billion yen per year.

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