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Financial Information:
Annual Report 2005
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| Industrial
Machinery Bearings |
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As
a comprehensive global bearings manufacturer, NSK’s
Industrial Machinery Bearings Business undertakes production,
sales and R&D in the four major markets of Japan,
the Americas, Europe and Asia, and supplies a broad range
of industrial machinery bearings—from standard ball
bearings to super-large bearings—to diverse industries
and regions around the world.
Key sources of demand come from general industrial
machinery for the steel, railway vehicles and machine
tool industries, as well as household appliances, personal
computers and other electrical and IT equipment. The aftermarket
(i.e. the repair and maintenance market) is also an important
source of demand. |
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Review
of Operations
Supported by strong global demand from the general industrial
sector and the aftermarket, sales in this segment totaled ¥185.5
billion, up 5.2% year on year. Domestic sales exceeded the previous
year’s level, as sales to the steel, machine tools, railway
vehicles, and general industrial sectors increased. Particularly,
in the latter sector, demand was driven by increasing levels of
capital investments. China-related demand, such as bearings for
construction machinery, was also higher.
Overseas, marketing activities targeting the steel
and machine tool industries and the aftermarket sector yielded
good results, leading to robust sales in the Americas and Europe.
In the U.S., the recovery in the economy stimulated stronger sales
of industrial machinery bearings in the aftermarket. This, combined
with healthy sales in Brazil, led to a substantial increase in
overall sales in the Americas. In Asia, and particularly in China,
demand for industrial machinery rose sharply, generating higher
sales.
Operating income in Asia was flat, due in large part
to up-front investments for new production sites in China. However,
profit in all other regions rose, leading to segment operating
income of ¥19.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 64.1%.
Higher sales volumes combined with the benefits of capital investment
at our Fujisawa Plant were the primary factors supporting this
increase. The operating income margin rose by 3.9 percentage points
to 10.8%.
Outlook
and Major Initiatives
For fiscal 2005, the economic outlook for the U.S. and China remains
uncertain, but we expect the Japanese economy to continue its
current moderate expansion, lead by private-sector demand. Domestic
capital expenditures have been the backbone of strong business
growth in our Industrial Machinery Bearings segment. In the year
ahead, we expect factors such as abundant corporate cash flow
and the need to renew and reinforce current facilities to generate
continuing strong demand from the general industrial machinery
and machine tool sectors. We are also projecting strong growth
in infrastructure-related demand in China.
NSK is committed to increasing production capacity
to meet this demand. While NSK manufactures industrial machinery
bearings worldwide, the major manufacturing plant for products
for general industrial applications and the aftermarket is our
Fujisawa Plant in Japan. We are investing a total of more than
¥5.0 billion to boost production capacity at this site in
the two years ending March 2006.
Meanwhile, in sales, the Aftermarket Business Division-Headquarters
was established in July 2004 to strengthen NSK’s presence
in the aftermarket. This division is actively providing technical
services for customers and supplying a thorough lineup of support
services such as maintenance and inspection to raise the value
and presence of the NSK brand.
Topics
NSK Receives 2005 Science and Technology Award (Development
Category)
To respond to machine tool manufacturers’ needs for materials
capable of withstanding ultra-high speeds while lowering heat
emission, NSK utilized its material engineering know-how to successfully
develop an ultra-high specification bearing steel. This new material
is used for our ROBUST bearings series for precision machine
tool main-spindles. The award, presented by the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, was given
in recognition of this material’s contribution to the overall
development of Japan’s industrial technological foundations.
NSK Exhibits at the 2005 Hanover Messe
For the tenth consecutive year, NSK participated in the Hanover
Messe Trade Fair, one of the world’s largest industrial
machinery fairs held in Hanover, Germany. Our display this year
concentrated on components for steel, machine tools, wind turbines,
construction machinery and mining applications.
NSK actively participates in tradeshows in various
countries throughout the world, using them as opportunities to
meet customers face-to-face and to market the NSK brand.
New
Products
ROBUST P2X Series of High-speed
Precision Bearings for Machine Tool Main-spindles
Machine tools that perform micrometer-level precision processing
require bearings that have a high level of rotation accuracy.
NSK’s ROBUST P2X series meets this demand, delivering performance
well above that of the highest ISO precision criteria.
HPS™ Spherical Roller Bearings
Series
Thanks to their high load capacity, self-aligning ability and
integrated structure that makes handling easy, spherical roller
bearings are used as general-purpose roller bearings in a wide
range of heavy-duty industries.
Our HPS™ bearings have double the operating
life of conventional bearings and have a 20% higher limiting speed.
This cuts maintenance costs and helps to reduce the size and increase
the energy efficiency of end-products.
Full-complement Cylindrical Roller
Bearings for Wind Turbines
Bearings for wind turbine applications have typically been full-complement
cylindrical roller bearings designed for heavy loads. Their
drawbacks include the tendency to seize and wear easily at high speeds.
NSK’s latest bearings have limiting speeds up to 2.5 times
that of conventional bearings and resolve the problems that emerge
at high speeds.
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