Hitachi Cable, Ltd. has established a new company in the Suzhou region of China to handle the manufacture and sale of lead frames.
The Hitachi Cable Group is currently expanding its lead frame business at locations including the overseas production facilities of Hitachi Cable (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (headquarters: Singapore; hereinafter referred to as ''HCS''), Hitachi Cable PS Techno (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (headquarters: Malaysia), and PHCP, Inc. (headquarters: the Philippines), with Hitachi Cable Precision Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan; hereinafter referred to as ''Hitachi Cable Precision'') at the center of these activities. In recent years, the lead frame market in China has been growing rapidly at annual rates of 10% or higher, as a result of growth in the semiconductor industry. The lead frame market in China is now the third largest in the Asia region, following the markets in South Korea and Taiwan region.

Until now, the Hitachi Cable Group has exported for sale to customers in China the lead frames produced at various Group facilities. However, many customers have requested local production of lead frames in China, thus the establishment of highly cost competitive production and sales facilities near customers' facilities has emerged as a pressing need in terms of further business expansion in the China market. As a result, Hitachi Cable has decided to establish a lead frame production and sales company in the Suzhou region of eastern China - a region in which a great number of semiconductor manufacturers have expanded operations. The establishment of this company is intended to expand sales by improving customer service in the China market.

In the future, the Hitachi Cable Group plans to enhance and expand its lead frame business by applying the strengths of its unified production structure, in which all aspects of production - from materials through processing - are handled within the Group.

Summary of the new company:

(1)Company name	Suzhou Hitachi Cable Precision Co., Ltd.
(2)Location	Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
(3)Representatives	Yoshinori Bando, Chairman Tetsuya Saito, President (dispatched from Hitachi Cable Precision)
(4)Capital	US $9 million (945 million yen at the exchange rate of 105 yen/US dollar)
(5)Ownership	Hitachi Cable Precision: 70%; HCS: 30%
(6)Established	12-Jan-05
(7)Business operations to begin	January 2006 (planned)
(8)Primary lines of business	Manufacture and sale of lead frames
(9)Number of employees	105 (planned for the end of December 2007)
(10)Sales	1.44 billion yen (planned for FY 2007)

Summary of Hitachi Cable Precision:

(1)Company name	Hitachi Cable Precision Co., Ltd.
(2)Location	Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
(3)Representative	Yoshinori Bando, President
(4)Capital	400 million yen
(5)Ownership	Hitachi Cable: 100%
(6)Established	1-Dec-00
(7)Number of employees	341 (as of the end of December 2004)
(8)Sales	9.7 billion yen (FY 2003)

Summary of HCS:

(1)Company name	Hitachi Cable (Singapore)Pte. Ltd.
(2)Location	Singapore
(3)Representative	Kunio Nakagawa, President (dispatched from Hitachi Cable)
(4)Capital	Singapore $16 million (1.008 billion yen at the exchange rate of 63 yen/Singapore dollar)
(5)Ownership	Hitachi Cable Group: 93%; other shareholders: 7%
(6)Established	Jul-74
(7)Number of employees	348 (as of the end of December 2004)
(8)Sales	Singapore $168 million (10.6 billion yen at the exchange rate of 63 yen/Singapore dollar; FY 2003)