Hitachi Cable, Ltd. (President: Seiji Hara) and the Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (President: Junnosuke Furukawa) are going to found a joint venture company for copper tube manufacturing jointly with the Songjiang Economical & Technical Development General Co. in China by about December this year. The new company, to be located in the Shanghai Songjiang Industrial Zone, will manufacture and market copper tubes for heat exchangers of air-conditioners and refrigerators focusing on inner-grooved copper tubes for air-conditioners.
While the Japanese domestic copper tube market tends to shrink due to the fact that air-conditioner manufacturers shift their business locations to overseas site, the production quantity of air-conditioners in China is increasing rapidly these years, rendering its copper tube market allegedly the largest in the world. It is known, in order for copper tube manufacturers to survive highly competitive markets, that the production of high-performance copper tubes coping with new refrigerants and energy-saving issues is required, not to mention high-quality and low-cost copper tube production using the latest model of manufacturing plants. Thus, a business initiative has been urgently necessitated to securely deal with the rapidly expanding Chinese market, in which a production base is established in China so that Japanese production technologies capable of coping with environmental issues are transferred there.
Implementation of such an initiative has resulted in the cooperation of the two companies that have been leading the world in the development and manufacturing of inner-grooved tubes. Whereby this new company has been founded to enable continuous production of melting, casting, and manufacturing of high-performance inner-grooved copper tubes by introducing the latest model of manufacturing plants.
The two companies are scheduled hereafter to apply to the Chinese Government Agencies for approval of the foundation of the joint company, intending to start the manufacture and supply by the later half of 2002.
The investment for the new company is estimated to be 95 million U.S. dollars. For the present, the inner-grooved tube business will be built up aimed at Japanese and Chinese air-conditioner manufacturers located in China, while it is intended to expand the production items to surface-wrought copper tubes and others through the study of market trends.

Outline of the New Company

Name: Shanghai Sunshine Copper Products Co., Ltd. (tentative name)
Location: Shanghai Songjiang Industrial Zone
Capital: 50 million U.S. dollars
Investment ratio: Hitachi Cable: 47.5 %, Furukawa Electric: 47.5 %,
Songjiang Economical & Technical Development General Co.: 5 %
Date of foundation: December 2000 (original target)
Site area: 86,000 m²
Floor area: 30,000 m²
Targeted sales: Approximately 4 billion yen (for 2003)
Number of employees: Approximately 160 (original plan)

For further information, contact:

Hitachi Cable, Ltd: Public Relations Group, General Affairs Department
at +81-3-5252-3261
Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd: Public Relations Section, General Affairs Department
at +81-3-3286-3049