Segment Business StrategyMagnetic Application Products

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
Main
Products
For ICT (Including for data center)
HDD magnetic heads
HDD suspensions, etc.
Recording Devices Recording Devices
For Automotive
DC-DC converters
Battery chargers
Magnets for motors (Cooling fan, Door lock)
Batteries for xEV
For ICT (base station)
High Current Digital POL Converter
HDD magnets
For Industrial Equipment & Energy
Bidirectional DC-DC converters
High efficiency AC-DC power supplies
Magnets for industrial equipment
Other Magnetic Application Products Other Magnetic Application Products
Important
Requirements for
Future Products
  • Further increase in storage capacity and miniaturization
  • Development of high-spec and high-reliability products
  • New technologies such as thermal assisted magnetic recording head
  • Supply magnets that reduce use of rare resources to a minimum
  • Supply magnets with high magnetic properties (high magnetic force and high heat resistance) that contribute to miniaturization and higher efficiency of electric motors
  • Development of high-efficiency power supplies
Customers
Car manufacturers, communication equipment manufacturers, industrial equipment manufacturers, infrastructure manufacturers, electrical home appliance manufacturers, precision instruments manufacturers etc.
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.
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%

* 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