Executive vice president energy and mobility Alistair Dormer, who oversaw the opening of the company’s factory in 2015, said it was an important part of the Hitachi global village, with its fortunes followed closely by people in Japan.
Mr Dormer said the primary consideration in choosing Newton Aycliffe as the site for the plant was the people.
He said: “There are some things like logistics – it’s close to a port, close the A1, connected to the railway - those are some of the factors that were built into it. But there were a number of other sites that were exactly the same."
