Tokyo, August 6, 2001 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), Fuji Electric
Co., Ltd. (TSE:6504) and Meidensha Corporation (TSE:6508) today announced
that they agreed to transfer their planning, design and production
functions of high-voltage motors1), medium-capacity generators2) and
related products to Japan Motor & Generator Co., Ltd. (JM&G), a R&D
focused joint-venture company they established in July 2000. The transfer,
scheduled for October, is to be accompanied by a capital increase
of JM&G to realize the equal stakes among the three shareholders.
High-voltage motors are a key component as these are drives for various
types of machinery used in fields ranging from power utilities, general
industry and water and sewage treatment plant, etc. Medium-capacity
generators are used with a prime mover like engines to provide emergency
back-up power at factories and buildings. Also, as a continuous use
application, they are being used in a various purposes such as a peak
shaving during the summer peak season, and for the co-generation system,
etc. The market expansion is expected in the area of the distributed
generation, energy saving and the global climate control.
In Japan, however, the business environment in the high-voltage motor
and medium-capacity generator markets is currently very severe due
to declining market prices by sluggish private-sector capital investment
and building construction. Therefore, it became necessary to make
a well-focused R & D investment and to accelerate the development
cycle and to produce better cost-performance products.
To face the changing market landscape, Hitachi, Fuji Electric and
Meidensha established JM&G in July last year. Utilizing cutting-edge
technologies and know-how common to both high-voltage motors and medium-capacity
generators - including insulation, cooling and production, JM&G combined
these strengths, together with human resources, to speed up the development
of high-performance, top-quality products with strong competitiveness.
Now that JM&G have achieved its initial phase of mission, the transfer
of production function was made to achieve: faster introduction of
its research results into the marketplace, a highly efficient production
system, faster development cycle by merging the core technologies
of the three companies, and further strengthening the product competitiveness.
JM&G will work on for production of high-cost performance, world-class
high-voltage motors and medium-capacity generators against the global
mega competition. In response to diversifying customer needs in areas
like energy saving and distributed generation, JM&G also plans to
actively promote system product sales and solutions business support.
Meantime, marketing, maintenance and services of JM&G offerings will
continue to be handled, as before, by the three-shareholding companies
and their affiliated firms.
1) Induction motors operated at higher than 600V and having a capacity
of not over 5,000kW
2) AC generators rated at 5,000kVA or less
Joint-venture company profile
1. Name |
: |
Japan Motor & Generator Co., Ltd. |
2. Headquarters |
: |
Hitachi City, Japan |
3. Production plants |
: |
Hitachi City, Suzuka City and Ohta City |
4. Capital |
: |
2.4 billion yen
(invested equally among Hitachi, Ltd. Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.
and Meidensha Corporation) |
5. Estimated sales |
: |
About 20 billion yen (FY2002) |
6. Transfer date |
: |
October 2001 (target) |
7. CEO |
: |
Etsuhiro Fukuda, Representative Director
and President |
8. Personnel |
: |
About 600 |
9. Main businesses |
: |
Development, design and production of
high-voltage motors,
medium-capacity generators and related products |
|