NTN Corporation (Japan) and Nidec Corporation (Japan) said they will invest an additional USD $18 million in their just-completed joint venture factory in China to meet exploding demand for their fluid dynamic bearings used in computer disk drives.

Another $1.8 million investment will be made by NTN to upgrade an existing factory in Thailand, and $9.2 million will go to expand another fluid dynamic bearing component plant in Japan. Nidec is also investing in its own standalone facilities for fluid film bearings, $200 million in Zhejiang, and expects to employ 10,000 workers there by 2004.

The Chinese joint venture plant, NTN-Nidec Zhejiang Corporation, is 60% owned by NTN and 40% owned by Nidec. The added $18 million investment is expected to triple the plant's current capacity to more than 6 million fluid dynamic bearings per month. Both companies were caught by surprise that the plant has only just opened and already demand exceeds its lifetime planned capacity of 5 million units per month.

NTN-Nidec Zhejiang is unique in that it produces motors engineered and designed to use NTN's proprietary sintered metals technology. At the time, an NTN spokesman said the decision to build in China was made for them; their major customers have shifted disk drive production to China at an unexpectedly rapid rate. NTN and Nidec had no choice but to follow, citing lower procurement and operating costs, along with the need to be physically closer to their customers.

The plant was announced in July 2002 and only came online in early 2003.



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