[ 1st Half of fiscal 2004 Performance Briefing ]HDD Head Business Outlook

Mr. Takehiro Kamigama
Senior Vice President
General Manager
Data Storage & Thin Film Technology Components Business Group

I would like to provide additional information on second quarter results and the outlook for the second half of the fiscal year.

In the second quarter, sales totaled 57.6 billion yen. First half sales were 111.4 billion yen, well above the 91.2 billion yen estimate that we announced at our presentation in May of this year. For the second half, we have upwardly revised our May sales forecast of 93.0 billion yen to 106.5 billion yen. Furthermore, we have reduced our exchange rate estimate from 120 yen to 110 yen to the U.S. dollar. The net result of these actions is a substantial increase in our fiscal year sales forecast from the 184.2 billion yen as of last May to 217.9 billion yen.

HDD Head Demand and TDK's Market Share

Due to extremely strong demand for hard disk drives, we have raised our forecast for aggregate demand for drives during this fiscal year from 240 million units to 253 million units. Our outlook for average heads per drive remains unchanged at 2.6. Accordingly, we upwardly revised our forecast for aggregate HGA demand from 630 million units to 662 million units. However, our market share forecast will remain the same at 33%.

HDD Head Launch Timetable

The 80GB/P head is now under volume production for all models. Sales are extremely strong. We are currently working to obtain certification for 120GB/P heads. Based on feedback from our customers, some manufacturers may begin full-scale production of 120GB HDDs in April next year at the earliest. But more realistically, we expect volume production at most companies to start in the subsequent quarter.

That concludes my summary of the current status of HDD operations. Thank you.