OREANDA-NEWS. December 12, 2012.  Hitachi, Ltd. (President: Hiroaki Nakanishi, TSE: 6501, ЃgHitachiЃh) today announced that Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (Managing Director: Piyush Shah, ЃgHitachi Hi-RelЃh), a group company in the Republic of India (ЃgIndiaЃh), has established and started operations at a new manufacturing facility in the Sanand-II Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) Estate. With this new factory now operating alongside its existing Gandhinagar factory, Hitachi Hi-Rel intends to enhance the lineup of industrial power electronics for use in plants in fields such as power generation, steelmaking, and chemicals. The goal is to expand Hitachi Hi-Rel's revenue of the growing Indian infrastructure market.

India is currently seeing the construction of many large-scale plants such as power plants, steel works and petrochemical plants, spurred by its rapidly growing economy and plans for large-scale investments in renewable energy to realize a low-carbon society. These developments are expected to lead to expansion in demand for industrial power electronics such as medium and low voltage inverter drive systems, uninterrupted power supplies (UPS) and power conditioners for power generation. These products are required to ensure stable operations of large-scale factories, and to conserve energy.

In October 2011, Hitachi invested in Hi-Rel whereby Hi-Rel Electronics Pvt. Ltd. became a subsidiary and changed its name to Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt. Ltd. Since the 1980s, Hi-Rel Electronics had expanded mission-critical businesses in India, including backup power and power stabilizer solutions in a broad range of fields, such as oil refining, petrochemicals, power generation, steelmaking and metals.

 Hitachi Hi-Rel's Gandhinagar factory manufacturers power electronics such asЃ@Industrial UPS, battery chargers and inverters for railway applications. Furthermore, since October, 2012, the factory has added grid-connected solar power inverters to the production lineup to address demand in the renewable energy field.

Having started operations, the Sanand factory will produce industrial power electronics products such as medium-voltage and low voltage inverter drives steel automation drives and industrial automation products to increase its lineup of offerings. This will enable Hitachi Hi-Rel to manufacture cost competitive products with Ѓgbest-in-classЃh quality with Hitachi manufacturing know-how. By increasing production capacity through the start of operations at the new factory, Hitachi Hi-Rel seeks to increase its revenue of the Indian market. At the same time, Hitachi Hi-Rel will strive to expand business with a view to exporting products to regions that hold potential markets for social infrastructure systems; namely, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa among others. Through these and other measures, Hitachi Hi-Rel aims to generate revenues of 8 billion Indian Rupees (about 12 billion yen*) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.
* At the exchange rate of 1.5 yen per Indian Rupee.