NTN to Build New Fluid Dynamic Bearing(FDB) Plant to Expand its Business in Thailand

To expand its fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) business, NTN Corporation (NTN) will build a new FDB plant in Thailand at its wholly-owned subsidiary, NTN Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (NMT). This plant will manufacture “sintered alloy” hydrodynamic bearings (product name: BEARPHITE^®) which are a core component in its FDB units, as well as plastic housings and flanged shafts used in these units.

(Concept view of new plant)	(Products for unit manufactured at new plant)

NTN and Nidec Corporation (Nidec) established a joint venture company, NTN-Nidec (Zhejiang) Corporation (NTN-Nidec) in March 2003 to manufacture FDB units that are seeing expanded use in hard disk drive (HDD) motors. NTN-Nidec is projecting a sharp increase in demand and are therefore expanding facilities to manufacture a scheduled volume of 8 million units per month by the end of fiscal 2004.

NMT has been manufacturing hydrodynamic bearings which are a core component of FDB units since December 2002. To expand production facilities to meet NTN-Nidec plans for increased production and start supplying parts to Nidec Asian regions, NMT decided to purchase additional land (1.6 times the size of NMT's current site) at the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Park of Thailand where NMT is located and build a new plant.

The boosted production will include manufacture of hydrodynamic bearings used in 2.5-inch-and-below HDD motors as well as in 3.5-inch equivalents. With a view to future FDB unit assembly in Thailand, NMT will shift this work from the existing plant to the new plant. This new plant will also start manufacturing components such as plastic housings and flanged shafts.

The plan calls for approximately a 5-fold increase in current monthly production of hydrodynamic bearings at the new plant, to 12 million by the end of fiscal 2006.

New Plant Overview