Presentation Transcripts

These graphs show annual net sales and operating income for the machined components business segment.
Net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015 totaled 155.0 billion yen, up 10.7% from the previous fiscal year. Operating income increased 18.4% to reach 39.7 billion yen pushing the operating margin up 1.6 percentage points to reach 25.6%.

Net sales of ball bearings increased 12.0% from the previous fiscal year to reach 86.7 billion yen. During the fiscal year, demand remained upbeat for a variety of different applications, such as automobiles, office automation equipment and home electronics, and the external shipment volume rose 6% to reach 145 million units per month on average. Profits also increased nicely as capacity utilization improved. For the fiscal year ending March 2016, we forecast increased sales and improved profits due to steadily growing demand.

Sales of rod-ends and fasteners rose 10.5% from the previous fiscal year to total 30.4 billion yen and profits were also up due to steadily increasing demand for new aircraft. For the fiscal year ending March 2016, we forecast another increase in sales and profits.

Sales of HDD pivot assemblies rose 8.3% from the previous fiscal year to hit 37.9 billion yen. Although demand for PC's continued to lag behind, the HDD market remained relatively stable due to growing demand for other products such as digital recorders. Working against this backdrop, we were still able to increase profits due to our high market share. Falling PC sales and the diminishing HDD market have cast a shadow over our outlook for the fiscal year ending March 2016 for which we project slightly lower profits.