Medium-to Long-Term Growth Strategy
The scale of the HDD market continuously expanded in keeping with the increase in PC shipping numbers until around 2011, but demand has bottomed out and is expected to continue to decline. But the age of Big Data and associated high capacity storage for data centers and similar applications is about to begin. This means that the demand for HDDs is likely to shift from the personal computing and consumer sector to data centers. HDDs used in data centers must support extremely high storage capacities, and the number of heads in such disks is much higher than in HDDs for PCs. In this sector, TDK will continuously introduce leading-edge products enabling high capacity. We are forging ahead with new technologies to meet the requirements of the age, such as the development of the micro DSA (Dual Stage Actuator) and thermal assisted magnetic recording head technology that will enable a drastic leap in storage capacity.
In the domain of magnets, TDK is also working hard at new developments. Fiscal 2015 was a difficult year where we had to take measures such as implementing an impairment, but we intend to restore revenue and get back on track by focusing on growth areas such as automotive applications and renewable energy and by developing market-leading new products.
The power supply business is expected to experience a growth in demand for industrial equipment products. We will continue to develop high-efficiency power supplies that contribute to saving energy for industrial equipment overall.
Outlook for Fiscal 2016
In fiscal 2016, demand for PCs is expected to decrease, leading to a projected drop in the size of the HDD head market from some 551 million in fiscal 2015 to 490 million in fiscal 2016. This is likely to result in a net sales reduction in this area, but because sales of data center application products are gradually expanding, the overall result in the segment is expected to remain at about the same level.
Recording Devices |
Other Magnetic Application Products |
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Main Products |
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Important Requirements for Future Products |
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Customers |
Car manufacturers, communication equipment manufacturers, industrial equipment manufacturers, infrastructure manufacturers, electrical home appliance manufacturers, precision instruments manufacturers etc. |
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Com-petitors |
Dome stic |
None |
Power supplies: Cosel Magnet: Shin-Etsu Chemical, Hitachi Metals, etc. |
Over seas |
HDD magnetic heads: Seagate Technology (U.S.) Western Digital Technologies (U.S.) HDD suspension: Hutchinson Technology (U.S.) |
Power supplies: XP-Power (Singapore), Mean weLl (Taiwan) Magnet: ZHONG KE SAN HUAN (China), Zhejiang Dongyang Magnetic Enterprise Group (China), etc. |
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World Market Share of Representative Products (TDK Data) |
HDD magnetic heads : 25 – 30% HDD suspensions : 40 - 45% |
Power supplies for industrial equipment : 15 - 20% Ferrite magnets : 20 - 25% |
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* TDK is the only manufacturer in the world specializing in magnetic heads. Currently, the production of such heads is concentrated on three companies: TDK, Seagate Technology, and Western Digital Technologies.
View the full text of " Segment Business Strategy " on the PDF version.
Segment Business Strategy