Hitachi in Focus: Railway Vehicle Plant in New Aycliffe, Northeast England

Hitachi Ltd. starts building railway vehicles in November this year in New Aycliffe, Northeast England, investing 8,200 pounds (15 billion yen). This is HItachi's grand design to invest skills and years of experience gained through Shinkansen and to challenge the world's big three including Germany's Siemens.

"It is great that we've built a plant in the birthplace of railway transportation", commented Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi at the opening ceremony September 3. Present at the ceremony were 500 including Prime Minister Cameron.

The plant is 43,000 square meters, about the size of the Tokyo Dome, Tokyo's prestigious ballpark, and will function with a full support from Hitachi's Kasado Works. Its monthly output is expected to be 35 and due to increase up to 40. The plant employs local hands of 730 or so.

Chairman Nakanishi says the plant will induce know-how and human resources from Japan and for the moment 24 local engineers are to be called to Kasado Works for a three-month training to study firsthand the essence of Japanese craftsmanship.

Since 2003 onward Hitachi has mounted extensive sales activities in England, eventually to win in 2005 British Rail Class 395 linking London and Kent. The project won Hitachi a solid reputation for reliability capable of laying railways affording transport in the heaviest snow. That in turn led to a 1-trillion yen deal as Hitachi won an order for Intercity Express Programme in 2012.

Hitachi continued to receive orders for railway vehicles and the current backlog is over 1,000. The company's total sales in the March term, 1016 will register 17% over the previous term (200 million yen) and business profits should amass twice as much up to15 billion yen.

The new plant just built in New Aycliffe will be a touchstone of Hitachi's grand global strategy.