TDK 和 Murata兩公司的電子部品都很優秀.
我以前在台灣Motorola公司採用Murata公司的電容.
TDK公司在楊梅設廠多年.
80年代大家在談"百萬分之一"的不良率ppm
他們率先談"十億分之一"不良率ppb.....
Japan's TDK gets lifeline from China's rising smartphone stars
Reiji Murai and Sophie Knight
Reuters
10:00 a.m. CDT, October 16, 2013
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's TDK Corp, an electronics parts maker that has
struggled to make a profit while several of its peers grew rich in the
smartphone boom, has found help rebuilding its fortunes with the rise of
China's smartphone makers.
Once a leading brand in
cassette tapes that later prospered in magnetic heads for hard disk
drives until the PC business headed south, TDK fell behind rivals such
as Murata Manufacturing Ltd in making tiny, high-spec parts for mobile
gadgets like Apple Inc's iPhones and iPads.
But it has shifted its product
strategy towards SAW filters, a key mobile phone part that sorts out
unnecessary radio signals, and ramped up output, and has seen a surge in
orders from low-cost Chinese rivals to Apple and Samsung Electronics
Co, the world's dominant smartphone makers.
"We
were late to get in, but now Chinese demand is growing," TDK President
Takehiro Kamigama told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, emphasizing
opportunities with home-grown handset makers in the world's number-one
smartphone market.
"I think sales at the
established Chinese handset makers will grow ... Until now Chinese
makers' market was only domestic but now about thirty percent of their
sales are abroad, in emerging markets," he said.
Chinese companies such as Huawei Technologies Co, Lenovo Group Ltd and
China Wireless Technologies Ltd's Coolpad, among the top five Chinese
handset makers, are trying to secure a foothold in the United States
while dipping their toe into markets in Russia, Brazil and Latin
America, said Melissa Chau, senior analyst for the Asia Pacific region
at research firm IDC.
"Chinese handset makers have
ambitions to go beyond (the domestic market) because the kind of margins
they're getting are not really that high," Chau said.
TOUGH TWO YEARS
Chinese players are driving TDK's expected 30 percent
surge in SAW filter orders in the second half of the financial year to
March from the first half, Kamigama said. He added the company would
triple production of the component this year.
TDK's
passive component division, which includes SAW filters, turned a profit
in the April to June period for the first time in six quarters. The
company as a whole is forecasting a 13 billion yen ($132 million) profit
this financial year, after barely breaking even last year and slipping
into the red the year before.
"These have been a
tough two years," Kamigama said. "There are many areas where we've been
losing out to competitors, including SAW filters."
Kamigama said the company took some time to clear out inventory of
custom products at its Epcos subsidiary, where it focused its investment
only to see demand falter from a principal customer.
The SAW filter market is now led by Japan's Murata, which also is
number one in the market for ceramic capacitors, another vital
smartphone component. TDK's share in the capacitor market has halved
since 2004, according to Morgan Stanley MUFG analyst Shoji Sato.
"I want to get neck-and-neck (with Murata) again (in SAW
filters) in the next fiscal year," Kamigama said, adding that he did not
expect Chinese manufacturers to be able to compete in the market for
the component anytime soon.
"SAW filters have not
got to that point yet," he said. "The processes are unique and so are
the materials, so I don't see anyone being able to imitate that anytime
soon. It takes a lot of investment."
($1 = 98.5950 Japanese yen)
(Editing by Edmund Klamann and Mark Potter)
