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The eBearing News
August 11, 2003



Amatsuji Posts Strong First Quarter
Sales and Boosts Forecasts
copyright © 2003 eBearing Inc.

Amatsuji Steel Ball Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Japan) reported first quarter 2003 sales, along with a forecast for doubling sales in the next year. Amatsuji is one of the world's largest bearing ball manufacturers, under the AKS brand.

Amatsuji is 20.5% owned by NSK Ltd., Japan's largest bearing manufacturer. NSK accounts for 44% of AKS sales.

Sales for first quarter ended June 30 were ¥4.5 billion (USD $37.9 million), up 5.1% from ¥4.3 billion ($36.2 million) for the same period in 2002.

In the current third quarter, Amatsuji forecasts sales of ¥4.7 billion ($39.5 million), or ¥9.3 billion ($77.4 million) for the first half of fiscal 2003.

Looking ahead, the company said its long-term forecast is for sales more than doubling, from 2003's ¥9.3 billion to more than ¥18.3 billion ($154 million) in the first half of 2004 (April through September).

Amatsuji is building a new bearing ball factory in Poland, outside Zarow, in an industrial park designated to draw investment from Japanese companies. The $11.5 million plant is scheduled to come online sometime in late 2003. Its initial capacity is 70 million balls per month, or 840 million balls per year.

• article: Amatsuji/AKS will build new bearing ball plant in Poland

Founded in 1920 as a bicycle bearing manufacturer, Amatsuji went public in 1933 and reoriented itself as a high-quality producer of balls for bearings and other close-tolerance applications. Those "other" applications now include machine tools, CV joints, ball point pens, fuel injectors, and other precision ball needs.

The AKS product line includes chrome steel balls (78% of sales), stainless steel balls (8%), Carbon steel balls (4%), nylon, brass and ceramic balls (5%) and machinery parts (5%).

Today, Amatsuji has two AKS factories, both in Osaka. The new plant in Poland will be its third. In addition, there are three locally-operated joint ventures: Nitto Steel Ball, AKS Hambai, and Sakai Amatsuji, all in Osaka. In all, the company employes well over 600 people.

With NSK, Amatsuji operates three direct joint ventures: NSK-AKS Precision Ball Indonesia in (Cibitung, Bekasi, Indonesia); NSK-AKS Precision Ball Europe Ltd. (Peterlee, U.K.); NSK-AKS Precision Ball Co. (Clarinda, Iowa). All are next door to sister NSK bearing factories, and the factory in Indonesia recently doubled its output.

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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Copyrighted material; unauthorized reproduction prohibited.


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Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2010, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.