Hitachi Energy recently announced a $300-million investment in China to strengthen its global manufacturing footprint and address rapidly growing demand for transformers.
In a release, Hitachi Energy said that the investment will bolster the company’s power transformer and component manufacturing capacity in Hefei, East China’s Anhui Province, strengthening the resilience of the global transformer value chain to help ease supply chain constraints.
This investment underscores China’s strategic importance to the company’s global growth ambitions and supply chain resilience. It forms part of the company’s $9 billion global investment plan, the largest in the industry, to expand manufacturing capacity, engineering, R&D, and partnerships, as global demand for energy solutions continues to accelerate.
Continued commitment
“As demand for electricity surges, driven by rapid growth in AI, data centers, mobility and industrialization, the need for critical grid equipment has never been greater. Building on our continued commitment in China, this expansion is an example of how we are strengthening our manufacturing capabilities and reinforcing the resilience of local and global transformer value chains to better support our customers in building more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy systems for the electricity era,” according to Bruno Melles, CEO of Business Unit Transformers, Hitachi Energy
Key milestones
According to James Zhao, Executive Vice President and Region Head North Asia, Hitachi Energy, “This significant investment reflects our long-term commitment to our customers, partners, and market and demonstrates our confidence in China’s manufacturing ecosystem. The establishment of a state-of-the-art power transformer factory and the new ultra-high voltage bushing facility, as well as the launch of the digital production line of tap changers, are key milestones in the company’s presence in the country. Together, this investment will support China’s development of a new energy system while meeting growing demand from customers around the world.”
Full value chain
With more than four decades of operations in China, Hitachi Energy has a strong presence with 11 manufacturing sites and capabilities spanning the full value chain, from R&D, consulting, sales, engineering, manufacturing, and services, the release added.