Hitachi Cable, Ltd., and its subsidiaries are augmenting our domestic and overseas leadframe-manufacturing system.
This will allow for quick responses to the tumultuous semiconductor market and will also allow the Company to enhance cost competitiveness.
Hitachi Cable Group is a leading manufacturer of leadframes, encompassing all processes from the creation of raw materials to the finished product. At present, the Company has three main manufacturing bases. These are: 1) Densen Works (Board Director and General Manager: Kiyoshi Shimojima; address: 1-1 Sukegawa-cho 3-chome, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture), 2) the consolidated subsidiary Kitsuda Co., Ltd. (President: Michinori Shimogaichi; address: 901 Hosen-cho, Yonezama City Yamagata Prefecture), and 3) Hitachi Cable (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., (hereinafter HCS; President: Toshihiro Mesaki; location: Singapore).
There is presently a slump in the semiconductor market because of sluggishness in the mobile phone and personal computer fields. However, we expect not only a recovery in these fields but also future market growth driven by demand for digital home appliances and automotive applications. Accordingly, we feel that our leadframe business will also grow.
Therefore, we plan to expand the Group's leadframe business to keep up with the expected future growth in the semiconductor market. To do so, we will establish a domestic leadframe-manufacturing subsidiary and strengthen the overseas manufacturing base. We also plan to expand our TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) and TAB-related businesses.
On December 1, 2000, we established Hitachi Cable Precision, Co., Ltd. Starting in April 2001, we will gradually shift the manufacturing of transistor leadframes at Densen Works to this new company. We feel that having one primary leadframe-manufacturing base will allow us to strengthen our organization and increase our manufacturing capabilities.
We have acquired all shares in Kitsuda (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., (President: Yuichi Endo; location: Malaysia; subject to consolidation) from Kitsuda Co., Ltd., making Kitsuda (Malaysia) a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Cable. This will allow us to solidify our relationship with this subsubsidiary. We have changed its name to Hitachi Cable PS Techno (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd (hereinafter PS Techno).
PS Techno will be one of our manufacturing bases in Southeast Asia. Through cooperation with HCS and speed-up the introduction of plating machine in accordance with the wishes of our customers, we plan to construct a unified manufacturing framework, including everything from stamping to plating products.
Densen Works will be the center of the global manufacturing network as the base for design, R&D and manufacturing, for metal precision press molds indispensable for the manufacture of leadframes. Densen Works will also manufacture various types of leadframes. In addition, we plan further increases in the production of TAB tape for use in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) as well as package materials for CSP. Finally, we will augment such specialized product fields as rigid boards1 and two-metal TAB tape2.
With these developments, we expect to increase the scale of the Group's semiconductor packaging materials business, including leadframes and TAB-related products, from the present approximately 35 billion yen a year to approximately 60 billion yen a year in three years.

Company Details

1. Hitachi Cable Precision Co., Ltd.

Address: 901 Hosen-cho, Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture
Representative: Michinori Shimogaichi
Date Established: December 1, 2000
Capital: 10 million yen
Major Shareholder: Hitachi Cable, Ltd. (70%), Kitsuda Co., Ltd. (30%)
Manufacturing Area: 1,000 m²
Main Business: Manufacture of Transistor Leadframes
Sales: Approximately 2.5 billion yen(forecast for fiscal 2002)
Employees: Approximately 40 (forecast by end of fiscal 2002)

2. Hitachi Cable PS Techno (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (presently Kitsuda (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.)

Address: 70450 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, Malaysia
Representative: Yuichi Endo
Date Established: May 25, 1989
Date Name Changed: April 1, 2001
Date of Share Transfer: February 28, 2001
Capital: 5,528 thousand Malaysian Ringit (approximately 28 million yen)
Major Shareholder: Hitachi Cable, Ltd. (100%)
Main Business: Manufacturing and sales of IC/transistor leadframes
Sales: 1,176 million yen (fiscal 2000)
Employees: 73 (as of March 31, 2000)

*1	Rigid Boards This product leverages microwiring technology used in making TAB tape to create approximately 100 µm-thick glass epoxy resin boards. We expect increases in demand for this product for IC cards, etc.
*2	Two-Metal TAB tape This is a circuit board material that creates a wiring pattern on both sides of TAB tape, assures electrical properties, and allows circuit boards to be high-voltage. It is beginning to be used in materials for high-density wiring module circuit boards and interposer semiconductor packages.