Showa Denko: Fiscal 4Q19 Financial Results

(in ¥ billion)	4Q18	4Q19	FY18	FY19
Revenue	130.4	120.3	992.1	906.5
*Growth*		-8%		*-9%*
Net income (loss)	NA	NA	116.8	75.3

For its electronics segment, sales of SDK were ¥96.4 billion in FY18 compared to ¥111.9 billion in FY19, or down 14%.

In this sector, HDs sales decreased with shipment volumes down mainly in 1H19 corresponding to the declining WW HDD market but for highest capacity units.

According to Trendfocus, Inc., the best source of information on rigid disk media and substrates, Showa Denko was ranked ≠3 with 14.8% market share in units shipments in 4CQ19 after Seagate and WDC and in front of Fuji Electric, then being ≠1 WW independent supplier. Analysts notes that despite increasing demand, client HDD reductions limit 2019 media shipments.

In 2019, SDK began shipment of a newly developed 3.5-inch HD media which have storage capacity of 2TB/disk based on MAMR, technology for next-gen HDDs. This product has been adopted up to now by Toshiba Electronic Devices and Storage Corporation for use in its MAMR 18TB near-line HDD, the largest storage capacity in the industry.

In a Q&A with analysts, the company stated: “Assuming the influence of the new coronavirus cases, we reduced our estimate of operating income for the first half of this year by about Y5 billion at the stage of working out our performance forecast.“

FY20 forecast:
. For global revenue, ¥810.0 billion down 11% Y/Y
. For HDs, shipment volumes for data centers expected to increase