Rogers Corporation & Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. Form Joint Venture / Polyimide Laminate Systems (PLS) to Make Disk Drive Suspension Material

Tokyo (PROTEXT) - Yesterday in Tokyo, two company presidents signed an agreement that creates a new specialty circuit material company, Polyimide Laminate Systems (PLS). The new company is a 50-50% joint venture between Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. of Tokyo, Japan, and Rogers Corporation (Amex: ROG) of Rogers, Connecticut, U.S.A. PLS will manufacture a specialty flexible circuit board laminate used for making the read/write head suspension assemblies in high performance, hard disk drives (HDD's). These suspension assemblies, produced by Hutchinson Technology, Inc., (Nasdaq: HTCH) of Hutchinson, Minnesota, for advanced HDD's, are the technology of choice in new HDD designs. Called TSA(TM) Trace Suspension Assemblies, this Hutchinson product allows manufacturers to lower costs and improve performance. Hutchinson, the world's leading supplier of suspension assemblies for HDD's, has led the advancement of drive technology since entering the business in 1982. The new venture pairs the specialty material capabilities of Rogers with the specialty material and chemical capabilities of Mitsui, creating an outstanding opportunity to provide customers with electronic materials that support advanced circuit technologies. Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. President, Hiroyuki Nakanishi, commented, "We are very delighted to have a joint venture with Rogers, a partner supplying superior electronic materials based on outstanding market development activities." The President and C.E.O. of Rogers Corporation, Walter E. Boomer, said, "This agreement represents an exceptional synergy of material and chemical technologies. We have had an ongoing relationship with Mitsui since 1990, and each partner has earned the deep respect of the other. I look forward to many years of innovative and profitable business activities together." Rogers Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Robert D. Wachob, said, "This synergy has already allowed us to bring a unique and valuable product to market, one that helped enable the design of an entire generation of hard disk drives, and is already beginning to support next generation designs for memory storage. Sales of this product to HTI doubled in 1998, and continue to grow rapidly. The partnership with Mitsui is an example of Rogers commitment to the market for high performance adhesiveless materials, which is also growing rapidly." Hutchinson Technology, Inc. Vice President, Rich Myers, commented, "Hutchinson's TSA(TM) Trace Suspension Assemblies are rapidly becoming the wireless suspension platform of choice in demanding hard disk drive storage applications. The establishment of the joint venture between Rogers Corporation and Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., brings together two leading electronic material suppliers to provide geographical diversity and enhanced supply chain management for key materials used in the manufacture of the TSA(TM) products." PLS will be located in a new plant to be constructed in Chandler, Arizona, and will become the domestic U.S. manufacturing facility, complementing the MCI facility in Nagoya, Japan. The PLS product is a specialty adhesiveless laminate, comprised of copper, polyimide, and stainless steel, that is custom manufactured for exceptionally high performance flexible circuits. Rogers Corporation manufactures and markets specialty materials and components worldwide, for targeted applications in the communications, computer, imaging, consumer, and transportation markets. Rogers technical sales offices are located in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Belgium, and in the U.S. Rogers has two additional joint ventures. Rogers Inoac Corporation (RIC), a 50/50% joint venture with Inoac Corporation, is a leading Japanese manufacturer of high performance elastomer products. RIC is located in Nagoya and Mie, Japan. Durel Corporation, a 50/50% joint venture with 3M, is a leading manufacturer of electroluminescent lamps and inverters. Durel is located in Chandler, Arizona. Rogers Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements which should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in the Company's operations and environment. These uncertainties, which include economic conditions, market demand and pricing, competitive and cost factors, and the like, are incorporated by reference in the Rogers Corporation 1998 Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements. ots Original Text Service: Rogers Corporation Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Karen Krider of Rogers Corp., (USA) 860-774-9605, or karen.krider@rogers-corp.com; or Masakazu Yamada of Mitsui Chemicals, +81-3-3592-4060, or masakazu.yamada@mitsui- chem.co.jp; or Rich Myers of Hutchinson Technology, (USA) 320- 587-1850, or Rich.Myers@hti.htch.com Web site: http://www.mitsui-chem.co.jp http://www.htch.com http://www.rogers-corp.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT