China appears to be edging ahead in the international contest to build a new nuclear power station on Turkey’s Black Sea coast – a sign of how the ambitions of its nuclear companies are poised to reshape the global nuclear industry.

Beijing is not looking for government guarantees for the project and can supply its own financing, according to an Ankara official, pointing to China’s advantage in the race to build the reactor for Turkey.

While China is a relative newcomer to this game, having built overseas reactors only in Pakistan, the state-backed nuclear groups China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation have ambitions to become global suppliers of nuclear energy and appear to be making some progress in emerging economies. China is the world’s biggest builder of new nuclear reactors.