[ Third quarter of fiscal 2002 Performance Briefing ]HDD Head Business Outlook

Takehiro Kamigama
General Manager
Data Storage Components Business Group

[ Slide 1 ]

On the HDD Head Business

[ Slide 2 ]

Let me begin with net sales for the third quarter and the sales forecast for the second half of fiscal 2002. Third-quarter sales were ¥38.3 billion, exceeding our November 2001 forecast of ¥36.0 billion. The yen's depreciation and other positive factors lifted sales above our initial forecast, although certain models of HDD heads fell short of scheduled shipment volumes. We project second-half sales of ¥79.7 billion, against our November 2001 forecast of ¥75.0 billion. The main factor behind this projection is brisk second-half sales of 40-gigabyte/disk HDD heads, which are expected to exceed November 2001 forecasts of both sales and shipment volume.

[ Slide 3 ]

Let us now discuss aggregate demand and TDK's market share. PC demand is expected to track our forecast fairly closely. Meanwhile, we have revised our forecast for aggregate demand for HDDs slightly upwards, in line with our view that aggregate HDD demand has bottomed out and returned to a recovery footing.

The number of heads per HDD have been decreasing in the second half, but less so than expectations of a sharp decline during this period. Moreover, shipments of HDDs for servers have been remarkably steady. For these reasons, we have revised slightly upwards our forecast for the number of heads per HDD.

Next, I would like to discuss TDK's market share in HDD heads. I mentioned earlier that strong sales of 40-gigabyte/disk HDD heads have been in evidence so far in the second half of fiscal 2002. Growing demand for HDDs for servers, however, has not produced higher sales for TDK. For this reason, we estimate TDK's market share in the second half to remain at roughly 28% on average. That said, TDK's market share is estimated to reach the 30%-level in the fourth quarter.

That concludes my brief presentation on TDK's HDD head business.
Thank you for your attention.