Hitachi Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Shenzhen Hard Disk Drive Component Facility
Thur 17 Jan, 2008

Achieves over 140 million accumulative media shipment since establishment in 1998

SHENZHEN, January 16, 2008– Hitachi Global Storage Technologies ( Hitachi GST) today celebrated the 10^th anniversary of its Shenzhen media manufacturing facility. Shenzhen is one of Hitachi’s key manufacturing hubs worldwide. With more than 11,000 employees in three Shenzhen facilities, Hitachi GST in Shenzhen has grown significantly over the last decade in terms of production capability, technology and output volume.

The media or disk is the key technology of the hard drive upon which electronic information is written in the data recording process. In August 2003, Hitachi GST announced it was investing several hundred million US dollars to move the majority of its media manufacturing to Shenzhen, making it the first and the only media manufacturing plant in the region. Today, t he facility alone employs more than 2,000 staff. In 2007, the facility shipped more than 8 0 million media, and since its first shipment in 2004, the facility has achieved cumulative shipment over 14 0 million media. The media produced in Shenzhen are shipped to Hitachi’s production facilities in China and Thailand for hard drive assembly.

“Since its establishment, the capability of the team here gave Hitachi GST the confidence to invest and entrust the Shenzhen facility to become our largest disk manufacturing plant,” said Mr. Phil Duncan, Chief Administrative Officer, Hitachi GST, “The China team will continue to play a key role in developing China as a center of manufacturing excellence for cost-competitive, technology-leading media for the worldwide market.”

With this rapid growth, Hitachi’s Shenzhen facility has also been recognized as the role model for the industry. “In what is universally recognized to be a highly competitive and technologically challenging industry, efficiency and technical capability in the Shenzhen media facility stand as second-to-none. The history and performance of this facility are one that we are truly proud to celebrate,” said Ian Sanders, General Manager, Media Business Group, Hitachi GST.

Also attending the celebration were students representing various Gongbai Town primary schools in Heyuan City, which have been receiving sponsorship from Hitachi GST in the last three years. Youth education programs initiated by Hitachi GST in Greater China have helped the primary schools in poverty areas with facilities and English teaching through donations and voluntary efforts by employees. The sense of corporate social responsibility underscores Hitachi’s commitment to the local community and economy. Hitachi’s achievement has been recognized for countless awards including:

• Double Excellence Foreign Enterprise of China, by China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment and Shenzhen Economic Development Bureau
• Top 500 Export Enterprises in China, by China Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation
• Top 100 Industry and Commerce Enterprises by Shenzhen Economic Development Bureau
• Green Enterprise Awards, from Shenzhen Municipal Government
• Excellent Foreign Investment Enterprises in Fulfillment of Social Responsibility in 2006, by Ministry of Commerce and China Association of Enterprise’s with Foreign Investment

“As we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of our media facility, we would like to thank the local government for their great support”, said Ms. Shiqing Zhang, General Manager, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. “The past ten years, 1998-2008 are just the beginning of a flourishing period for Hitachi GST (Shenzhen) Co Ltd. For 2008 and beyond, we will continue to play our role as the center of competency for media manufacturing for Hitachi globally and deliver the best hard disk drive technology and products to our customers.”

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was founded in 2003 as a result of the strategic combination of Hitachi’s and IBM’s storage technology businesses. Hitachi GST is the industry’s second largest hard disk drive manufacturer in revenue.

The company’s goal is to enable users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing access to large amounts of storage capacity in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home. The company offers customers worldwide a comprehensive range of storage products for desktop computers, high-performance servers and mobile devices. For more information on Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 347,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2004 (ended March 31, 2005) consolidated sales totaled 9,027.0 billion yen ($84.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s Website at http://www.hitachi.com.