Tokyo, Japan, July 10, 2018 — Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6305; President: Kotaro Hirano; “HCM”) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with NIPPON Machinery B. V. (President: M.Kemal Cetinelli; “NIPPON Machinery”) for the establishment of a new company that sells and services construction machinery to further expand business in the growing Central Asia construction machinery market, in order to grow the sales network and value chain business.

Central Asia has a history of Silk Road trade and still maintains a position to this date as a major center of exchange on the Eurasian continent. Also, recently, it has been receiving a lot of attention for its rich natural resources and as a key future economic bloc, eyed as a key traffic junction connecting to the European economic bloc in the Belt and Road Initiative promoted by the People’s Republic of China.

As such, there are high expectations in and regarding the entire Central Asia region with respect to infrastructure and industrial developments in the future. Additionally, due to the rich natural resources that it is blessed with—oil, natural gas, iron ore, copper, uranium, and rare earth metals to name a few—HCM has supplied a number of hydraulic excavators for mining and dump trucks, and holds a large market share in the Central Asia region.

HCM has conventionally continued to sell machinery through dealerships in this market, but this time entered into a partnership with Nippon Machinery, which has extensive know-how in the market, for the establishment of a sales/service company. In the near future, HCM will pursue further business expansion in the construction machinery market of Central Asia through the new company.

The HCM Group will reinforce its value chain business centering on services and solutions in addition to the expansion of construction machinery sales in the prospective Central Asia region.