As we have seen this past year, the landscape has been altered somewhat as a result of the burst of the Internet bubble. However, while we are experiencing some short-term shifts in consumption, we believe that the longer term view remains strong for power demand and for the type of solutions we know that our customers need and want.

We received orders from Goldendale Energy for a steam turbine generator, HRSG, SCR System and a step-up transformer for use in a combined cycle plant. This was the first of a number of "Integrated Equipment and Performance Solutions", which we now call a "Wrap", because it enables one manufacturer, like Hitachi, to combine and optimize the equipment configuration, both technically and commercially, providing a solution to both the contractor and end-user which minimizes their risk of interface difficulties and provides guarantees for both performance and emissions.

Hitachi intends to continue to build on this success in 2002 and offer more "Wraps" to those customers and contractors looking to convert their existing simple-cycle installations into combined cycle plants.

But this wrap concept has many applications for Hitachi that go far beyond combined cycle plants. For example, we can combine offerings of high-voltage switchgear, transformers and bus-duct to a utility customer planning a substation expansion, or a combination of compressors and motors and SCR catalysts to a customer building a large process plant.

But one of the most exciting opportunities for Hitachi in the US in 2002 and beyond is the resurgence of interest in large pulverized coal fired plants and the applicability of our wrap concept to this market.

As most of you will know, in the last fifteen years in the US, no large pulverized coal plants have been built considering overall project economic conditions, particularly low gas prices, thereby favoring gas fired combined cycle plants. But in Japan, with no indigenous gas, the economics and market drivers are much more diverse.

Japanese utilities have continued to build large pulverized coal plants, both sub-critical and supercritical, burning coal imported from many countries, including Powder River Basin coal from the US. Hitachi has been the leading supplier of these plants building twelve supercritical plants over 500 MW in the last 10 years, with several being 1000MW and above.

Hitachi now offers this expertise in the US. Our world-leading technology in the areas of sliding pressure boiler designs, which give unrivaled flexibility and performance down to 15% load levels as well as our patented low-emission combustor designs, combined with Hitachi's expertise in air quality control equipment, provides end users with proven solutions based on our extensive experience in the Japan market.

The experience of building these plants in Japan on a turnkey basis will be shared with US engineering companies, allowing them to quickly assimilate knowledge of the latest pulverized coal technologies. It is Hitachi's intention to co-operate with, not compete with, the US engineering companies in the building of these plants by providing a "Wrap" of the Supercritical Coal Fired Boiler, the Steam Turbine Generator and the Air Quality Management System.

With the very large generation outputs and therefore, the very high capital cost of these plants, both end users and engineering companies are looking to find ways of reducing their risks before they proceed to build these facilities.

The ability and willingness of Hitachi to wrap all of the critical components of the plant and provide the appropriate guarantees for plant output, performance and emission levels, combined with our proven experience of building extremely reliable plants, will afford a high level of comfort to the customer and provide potential equity investors and commercial lenders with the confidence they need to participate in the project.

We do appreciate that large Pulverized Coal supercritical plants will not, and indeed, cannot be built in the same quantities as gas-fired combined cycle plants. Expert opinions, in fact, vary as to how many will ultimately be built, but numbers in the 10 to 20 range seem to be the most commonly accepted in the industry. With our large in-house engineering and manufacturing capability, Hitachi is ready to participate.

I would like to spend a few moments to describe the first installation of our H 25, 27-MW gas turbine in North America.

Six of these units are installed at Sask Power's Queen Elizabeth Power Station just outside of Saskatoon, in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. This plant will provide peak power to this region. Two of the units are already running and the plant will be fully operational by summer 2002.

I'm also pleased to advise you about the expansion of our Hitachi America, Ltd. after-sales operation to support our new and existing units in the field. In the last twelve months, we have recruited service managers from both the US and Japan, and they have assembled a service organization that will be based in Tarrytown, New York, to support the full range of Hitachi's products.

I wish to emphasize that Hitachi is well positioned to quickly address the growing requirements of the global power generating industry employing the manufacturing prowess of our factories in Japan and our worldwide network of engineering resources in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

Hitachi's Power and Industrial Systems Group employs more than 90,000 people around the globe. Hitachi is one of only a few companies worldwide that can provide the expertise and total systems needed to cover a wide spectrum of energy needs: nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric power plant systems, as well as the speedy, efficient information system infrastructures required to compete in a global marketplace. By developing new technologies and streamlining various installation processes, Hitachi will continue to provide new, highly efficient generating systems that meet the energy needs of tomorrow.