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CORRECTED - CORRECTED-(OFFICIAL)-UPDATE 1-Hitachi aims for 33-40 pct HDD sal

Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:37pm EDT

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(Company corrects sales growth period to calendar year 2007 from business year 2007/08) (Updates with details, background)

TOKYO, March 22 (Reuters) - Hitachi Ltd. (6501.T), Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate, said on Thursday it aims to post hard disk drive sales growth of 33-40 percent in calendar 2007.

Hitachi also said it would close a hard drive parts factory in Mexico by the middle of 2008, leading to about 4,500 job cuts.

Shares in Hitachi were up 4.6 percent at 892 yen as of 0140 GMT, outperforming the Nikkei average's .N225 1.7 percent gain.

The company will also aim to cut a cumulative $300 million in costs in the hard drive business over five years.

Hitachi bought International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM.N) disk drive operations in 2002 for $2 billion, but the unit has been a drag on its earnings.

The electronics company warned last week it would fall into a deeper parent-only loss this business year because of appraisal losses on its HDD operations due to steep falls in the prices of these devices.

Hitachi has said it hopes to get its struggling hard drive business into the black in the business year beginning in April.



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