Nidec: Fiscal 3Q16 Financial Results

Nidec Corp. announced financial rsults for the nine months ended December 31, 2016.

He we concentrate only on its HDD spindle motors business.

HDD spindle motors revenue
(¥ in million)

Although the number of units sold remained unchanged compared to the same period of the prior year, there were decreases in sales due to a negative effect of the foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.

The company stated: “Although the mid-term trend for HDD drive is expected to be gradual decline in volume, we are seeing HDD drive shipment capacity increase because of faster growth in better storage demand on a global basis. As a result, capacity for our HDD drive is expected to increase drastically, and so is the SP for HDD drive, which offset the volume decline and result in flattish sales over the coming years.“

And also: “The HDD drive TAM and our motor shipments in the December quarter were much higher than originally expected due to the solid PC shipment and HDD drive demand increase, which was caused by NAND shortage of supply. These reasons have been the case since the June quarter, and the March quarter’s outlook is better than originally expected.”

3FQ16 results surpassed initial forecast and the company revised upward its annual forecast:
Previous FY16 forecast in October 25, 2016: HDD shipments of 410 million units and Nidec motor shipments at 353 million units for the year, these two figures being now updated to 425 million and 368 million respectively.

HDD Market Mid-Term Trend

Nidec estimates based on various sources.

Nidec remarked that HDD unit price (in $ terms) are increasing but that global HDD sales remain flat.

To read the earnings call transcript