NTN Corporation (Osaka, Japan) and Nidec Corporation (Kyoto, Japan) have decided to "temporarily postpone" the establishment of their planned joint venture plant in the Philippines. The venture, NTN-Nidec Philippines Corp. (Manila, Philippines), was to have manufactured a new generation of hard disk drive spindle motors using fluid dynamic bearing technology supplied by NTN.

The joint venture was originally announced in November 2001 and a factory was to be under construction by now.

The companies said the postponement is due to, "the acceleration of a major customer's production schedule and the resultant decision to use an existing Nidec FDB instead of the new FDB Unit."

There is also speculation by some analysts that political unrest in the Philippines has made Manila an unattractive location, but that no secondary site could be identified quickly enough to avoid postponing the venture.

In its announcement, NTN also indicated it is postponing production of sintered alloy hydrodynamic bearings at a 100% NTN-owned subsidiary in Thailand.