Hitachi and UMC Electronics Reach a Basic Agreement on Collaboration for Strengthening Manufacturing

TOKYO, Apr 3, 2018 – (JCN Newswire) – Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) and UMC Electronics Co ., Ltd. (TSE:6615) today announced that the companies reached a basic agreement on collaboration for strengthening manufacturing in the IT product field, including server, storage, network equipment. Under this agreement, UMC Electronics will acquire stocks of Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Manufacturing, Ltd. (HITM) , a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, as well as the manufacturing assets of the related manufacturing bases owned by Hitachi. In the future, Hitachi and UMC Electronics will expand this business to collaborate on the development of a new market.

Hitachi has promoted strengthening the manufacturing structure and has provided high-quality and highly-reliable IT products for its customers. By merging its capabilities with UMC Electronics’ manufacturing capabilities acquired through volume operation while continuously utilizing the manufacturing technologies, know-how and manufacturing bases that Hitachi has owned over the years, Hitachi will domestically and internationally provide a wide range of customers with high-quality and cost-competitive Hitachi-brand products as in the past, aiming for further contributions to the Social Innovation Business.

UMC Electronics is the contract manufacturer which produces electronically controlled equipment for a hybrid vehicle’s power supply system utilized at the largest Japanese automobile company for the first time. As cutting-edge EMS, it delivers a variety of products to major companies in a wide range of industries, including automotive, industrial equipment and office automation systems. As a result of this collaboration, UMC Electronics will promote manufacturing on a systems level, enabling the manufacturing, function test and shipping of large-sized systems as a completed product, in addition to electronically controlled equipment embedded in a mounting board or aluminum die casting. Under the collaboration, UMC Electronics by continuing to manufacture and provide high-quality Hitachi products and will aim to acquire new business and expand our manufacturing capacity in Japan.

In the future, by merging high-quality manufacturing capabilities for a wide range of customers in Japan and overseas, cost competitiveness acquired through volume operation and speedy manufacturing capabilities, from parts procurement to manufacturing and shipping systems, and by establishing a new competitive manufacturing business model, Hitachi and UMC Electronics will aim for further global growth, including the data center market in which demand is rapidly expanding following IoT trends and digitalization, such as autonomous driving, robotics control and Fintech.