Corrected: Financial Results of Toshiba HDD Business

Here are some information on the HDD business of Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation containing forward-looking statements by president and CEO Hiroshi Fukuchi on November 14, 2019.

The company is the ≠3 HDD maker in the world behind Seagate and WD, manufacturing 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch devices in Philippines with a former HDD plant of Fujitsu acquired in 2009 for $345 million.

Total HDD  and others sales as of November 2019 represented ¥578 ($5.3) in FY18 and ¥470 ($4.3 billion) in FY19 or -19% Y/Y, and expects then much more, ¥570 ($5.2 billion) in FY21 and ¥650 ($6.0 billion) in FY23.

According to Kyle Yamamoto, Toshiba’s VP, HDD marketing and business operations, “Unfortunately I cannot disclose what is HDD since we do not report that publicly. Others is made up of materials and devices, and resale of memory products. What I can tell you is that Toshiba’s HDD market share has (and will) grow in 2019 over 2018. For HDD total market value (all 3 supplier’s revenue), the value will drop by ~10% in 2019 over 2018. From this you could surmise that Toshiba’s HDD revenue will drop by less than ~10% from 2019 over 2018.”

A little more than 10% of total production concerns high-capacity 3.5-inch nearline drives and the plan is to increase to more than 50% in FY21.

To reach higher capacity 3.5-inch units, 18TB in FY20, and 20TB and more in FY21, Toshiba will use SMR, energy assisted magnetic recording, and configuration with 10 disks.

Toshiba HDD strategies for focus areas and growing markets:

• Nearline products
  • Continue to develop large density drives for hyperscalers
  • Launch competitive products for small and mid-sized data center customers
  • Enhance production capability
• Surveillance camera markets
  • Widen product offering
• China and Asian markets
  • Strengthen customer support and sales schemes
  • Deepen collaboration with Chinese data center customers

* Discrete semiconductor, system LSI, NFT
** HDD, materials and devices, memory resale, etc.

HDDs and Others Growth Strategy: HDD

HDDs and Others Growth Strategy