Hitachi, Ltd., Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC), and the Economic Development Board 
of Singapore(EDB)  today announced that they have reached an agreement that the joint 
venture between the three parties, namely, Hitachi Nippon Steel Semiconductor 
Singapore Pte. Ltd.(HNS), in which Hitachi and NSC have been involved as partners of 
equal standing, will change to an arrangement in which management will be assumed 
predominantly by Hitachi starting April 1999.

HNS was established jointly in June 1996 by Hitachi, NSC and EDB as a production 
base for cutting-edge DRAMs designed by Hitachi, and has been in volume production 
since the summer of 1998.  However, faced with the growing need to accelerate plans 
for introducing 256-megabit DRAMs and other new products to respond to sharp 
fluctuations in the DRAM market, Hitachi has been exploring ways to change the 
management arrangement so as to permit greater resilience in the operation of HNS.  At 
the same time, NSC, having withdrawn from semiconductor production within Japan, 
has been indicating to EDB and Hitachi its intention to limit the status of its 
involvement in HNS.  Thus, in view of these circumstances, Hitachi, NSC and EDB 
have agreed to amend their joint venture agreement.

The main points of the amendment to the joint venture agreement are as follows:

(1)	HNS shares held by NSC (35%) shall be converted to non-voting-right shares as 
of April 1, 1999.
(2)	The number of the members of the board of directors of HNS shall remain at 
five, of which four will be nominated by Hitachi and one by EDB.  The directors 
representing NSC on the board of HNS will retire as of March 31, 1999.

Hitachi will continue to view HNS as one of its major volume-production bases for 
state-of-the-art DRAMs such as 64-megabit DRAMs and 256-megabit DRAMs.  
Moreover, now that this change in the arrangement will facilitate more flexible business 
management, Hitachi intends to move ahead with the early introduction of 256-megabit 
DRAMs, and at the same time will study the future introduction of system LSIs and 
other products.  From the standpoint of nurturing and strengthening the semiconductor 
industry in Singapore, EDB will continue to support the management of HNS as before. 
While NSC's commitment to HNS is going to be limited, it remains supportive of HNS. 

Outline of companies

About Hitachi Nippon Steel Semiconductor Singapore Pte. Ltd.
Managing Director:	Katsuhiko Katayama
Location: 		Tampines, Singapore
Establishment: 		July 1996
Initial Investment: 	S$1.3 billion
Paid-up Capital: 	S$440 million
Equity Participation: 	Hitachi Group		35%
			Nippon Steel Group	35%
			EDB Group		30%
Products		64-megabit DRAMs
Production Capacity	20,000  8"wafers / month

About Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd.(TSE:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading 
global electronics companies, with fiscal 1997 (ended March 31, 1998) consolidated 
sales of 8,417 billion yen ($63.8 billion*).  The company manufactures and markets a 
wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and 
power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit 
Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
* At an exchange rate of 132 yen to the U.S. dollar.

About Nippon Steel Corporation
Nippon Steel is the world's leading steelmaker, commissioning  Japan's first modern 
blast furnace in 1886. While its core business is steelmaking, it is also advancing in 
other directions under a multiple-business management.
The company meets the diversified needs of industry and society with technologies that 
are in the vanguard of the era. It extends technical cooperation to many steel companies 
worldwide, and promotes local production through many joint venture projects. Today, 
based on its wealth of expertize it is progressing in the fields of engineering and 
construction, and into other industrial materials such as titanium, new materials and 
chemicals, as well as electronics and information/communication systems. For more 
information on Nippon Steel Corporation, Ltd., please visit Nippon Steel Corporation's 
Web site at http://www.nsc.co.jp