Hitachi eyes big opportunities from nation's drive to upgrade industry

Hitachi Ltd will continue to strengthen its elevator and auto parts businesses, and expand in healthcare, internet of things and new generation of vehicles.

"China is an important market for Hitachi as revenue from China contributed the most to the company of all overseas markets. We will lift the revenue to 1.1 trillion yen ($9.6 billion) in 2018," said Toshiaki Higashihara, president and CEO of Hitachi.

He added that the revenue from the Chinese market reached 1.05 trillion yuan last year.

Hitachi expects that its revenue from overseas markets will reach 50 percent of its total in 2018.

China has rolled out its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for economic and social development and will implement development concepts featuring innovation, green development and sharing.

Hitachi will grasp the opportunities offered by the plan to develop the healthcare industry, intelligent logistics, electric vehicles, connected car and auto-driving technologies, according to Higashihara.

"We will provide a series of solutions and services, including healthcare solutions which help the hospitals to operate efficiently," he said.

The Made in China 2025 strategy, designed to transform China from a largely low-end manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing leader, provides Hitachi with a genuine boost with the application of IoT technology into traditional industry.

It will promote its IoT platform "Lumada" in China, which consists of robotics, artificial intelligence and big data analysis technologies.

Hitachi provide solutions to customers in a broad range of sectors, including power, energy, industry, distribution, water, urban development, finance, government and public, and healthcare.

Wang Xiwen, an expert of intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0, said the Made in China 2025 strategy has formulated guidelines for China's manufacturing industry in the next 10 years, with an aim to realize green and intelligent manufacturing.