NSK Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) announced that sales will be flat and earnings down for the quarter just ended, revising predictions announced just this past May 23. Simultaneously, the company warned that sales and earnings for the remainder of fiscal 2001 (ending March 31, 2002) will come in far below expectations.

For the first half of fiscal 2001, ended September 31, NSK said sales will be flat at 250 billion Yen. Net profit is projected to come in at 6 billion Yen, down 25% from the expected 8 billion Yen. Pretax profit for the half will be only 3.5 billion Yen, 50% under the 7 billion Yen forecast.

For fiscal 2001, NSK's newly-revised numbers indicate sales will drop to 490 billion Yen from the 530 billion Yen forecast. Profits will be more sharply affected; now expected to be only 3 billion Yen and 1.5 billion Yen, pretax.

For the unexpected sharp drops, NSK primarily blamed fast-declining demand from customers in the computer sector.

NSK is a leading producer of ball bearings used in computer disk drive motors. However, in recent months, the simple physics of ball bearings in disk drive motors has made them the limiting technology in advancing storage capacity and speed. Companies such as Minebea are moving rapidly to fluid bearing technology to disk drive makers