Hitachi Ltd has announced that Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd, a group company in India, has established and started operations at a new manufacturing facility in the Sanand-II GIDC Estate in Gujarat. With this new factory now operating alongside its existing Gandhinagar factory, Hitachi Hi-Rel intends to enhance the line-up 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.

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 as 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 line-up of offerings. This will enable Hitachi Hi-Rel to manufacture cost competitive products with "best-in-class" 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.

Contact: Aditya Shah, Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd. Email: aditya_shah@hitachi-hirel.com