NTN Aggressively Expanding Hydrodynamic Bearing Production in Thailand£¨Pic£©

NTN Corp. (Japan) announced it will be investing over ¥3.5 billion (USD $34 million) in an aggressive move to dramatically increase its hydrodynamic bearing production capacity in Thailand. Fluid dynamic bearings, or hydrodynamic bearings, are key components in modern computer disk drives, having replaced ball bearings in all but the oldest legacy applications. NTN's initiative involves a massive expansion of its Thai production facilities at the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Park. At 140,000 square feet, the expansion may seem small by traditional bearing manufacturing standards, but the high levels of automation, extreme throughput and the product's small size belie the facility's physical dimensions. The first phase of the expansion will more than quadruple NTN's hydrodynamic bearing production capacity in Thailand; as part of the move, all existing production equipment will be moved next door into the new facility when it is completed, scheduled to come online in November 2004. When that production shifts, the existing facility will be outfitted with advanced manufacturing equipment to produce constant velocity joints and needle roller bearings. NTN said the expansion plans in Thailand are needed to meet the unexpected explosion in demand for hydrodynamic bearing disk drives; demand which it forecasts will drive the company to produce more than 8 million bearings per month in Thailand by the end of 2004. Its production capacity, said NTN, will have to reach 12 million units per month by the end of 2006, quintuple what it is today, in order to keep up with demand. The Thai expansion announcement comes fast on the heels of NTN and Nidec revealing they are already expanding a new joint venture plant in China to more than triple its production capacity for hydrodynamic disk drive bearings. In Thailand, NTN is producing the hydrodynamic bearings as sintered alloy, which it calls Bearphite™. It is also setting up production for the related plastic housings and flanged shafts used in the disk drive units. NTN has been manufacturing production quantities of hydrodynamic bearing units only since late 2002. Bearings and components from the new Thai facility are earmarked for Nidec only, for its plants in China, Thailand and the Philippines. Currently, component production is focused on 2.5" drives, with some limited support for older 3.5" drives. However, the companies say they are focusing future product development efforts on bearings and components for drives smaller than 2.5".