Mabuchi Group Motor Sales by Application
January 1- December 31, 2008
Regarding the world economy in this year, the slowdown of the U.S. economy triggered by subprime loan crisis started to affect not only the Japanese and European economies but also the Asian economy from the beginning of this year, and the financial crisis occurred in the U.S. in September seriously affected the real economy on a worldwide scale. This led to drastic cooling of the world economy toward the end of this year. Regarding the Japanese economy, which was affected by both the economic slowdown in foreign countries and the appreciation of the yen, rapid decrease in export started to affect domestic demands in the second half of this year, and caused unprecedented disruptions such as rapid production adjustment and capital investment slump and worsening employment situation in the fourth quarter. Consequently, the Japanese economy rapidly declined this year.
Under the above-mentioned economic conditions, relevant markets of Mabuchi Group were significantly affected by the rapid economic slowdown and the appreciation of the yen in the second half of the year. In the automotive products market, for which sales growth was expected, although sales of power unit motors, our strategic products, and sales of other motors for new applications increased, this increase could not make up for the decrease in sales of existing high-share motors that were affected by the rapid decrease in automobile sales. In the audio and visual equipment market, sales of motors for in-car CD players and DVD players decreased. In both information and communication equipment market and home appliances, power tools, toys and hobbies market, sales decreased due to unfavorable year-end shopping season.
As a result, this year’s consolidated sales totaled 92,602 million yen (14.0% decrease on a year-over-year basis). The motor sales, which account for most of the consolidated sales, totaled 92,510 million yen (13.9% decrease on a year-over-year basis). Although an effect of profit increase was achieved owing to improvement in product model mix, this could not offset negative factors such as soaring prices of materials, increase in manufacturing expense including labor cost, increase in manufacturing expense due to investment in a new production base, and increase in fixed costs per unit with rapid decrease in production quantity from the second half of the year. Consequently, this year’s operating income totaled 5,652 million yen (51.6% decrease on a year-over-year basis). This year’s ordinary income totaled 7,872 million yen (53.0% decrease on a year-over-year basis) due to decrease in financial investment returns (such as interest received) as a result of decrease in dollar-based deposit interest rates and recording of foreign exchange loss due to the appreciation of the yen. This year’s net income totaled 3,565 million yen (67.3% decrease on a year-over-year basis) due to recording of loss from write-down of securities caused by stock market slump and compensation paid for a quality problem as extraordinary losses despite recording of extraordinary gains such as profit on sale of unused land in an overseas subsidiary.
The following are descriptions of market trends and motor sales conditions by application:
Automotive Products Market
Due to continued increase of electric components per automobile as a result of pursuing safety, convenience, amenity, and economic efficiency, the number of motors per automobile used for such electric components tends to increase. However, since the number of automobiles sold rapidly decreased worldwide from the second half of this year, both sales quantity and sales volume of the motors decreased. As the motors for existing major applications such as mirrors, door locks actuators, and air conditioning damper actuators have high shares, they were significantly affected by the decrease of the number of automobiles sold. Although sales of motors for power window lifters, motors as our strategic products, grew due to increase of numbers of new customers and increase of types of vehicles in which the motors are used, and although sales of motors for head light beam level adjusters and steering locks grew and sales of motors for electric parking brakes as new applications also increased, they could not make up for the decrease in the major applications. According to these results and the appreciation of the yen, the overall sales of this market totaled 38,633 million yen (9.8% decrease on a year-over-year basis).
Audio & Visual Equipment Market
The sales of motors for in-car CD players decreased as a result of being affected by the decrease in the number of automobiles sold. The sales of motors for DVD players widely decreased due to decrease in sales in the North American market and sales decrease in Asian regions such as China and India. According to these results and the appreciation of the yen, the overall sales of this market totaled 15,908 million yen (25.3% decrease on a year-over-year basis) which was considerable decrease compared with last year.
Information & Communication Equipment Market
Although the sales of motors for ink-jet printers decreased in the second half of the year, since the sales in the first half was favorable, the sales quantity slightly exceeded compared with last year. The sales of motors for digital cameras decreased due to unfavorable year-end shopping season. The motors for PC drives decreased the share as a result of our policy to focus on profitability. According to these results and the appreciation of the yen, the overall sales of this market totaled 15,896 million yen (12.4% decrease on a year-over-year basis) which was considerable decrease compared with last year.
Home Appliances, Power Tools, Toys & Hobbies Market
Though the sales of motors for power tools were sluggish in the North American market, this was offset by the sales growth in the European and the South American markets. In addition, due to adoption of high-performance accumulator batteries, sales of motors for high output power tools increased and reached the same as that of last year. The sales of motors for electric toothbrushes widely decreased due to saturation in the market, and the sales volume of motors for other beauty-related applications such as hair driers exceeded that of last year. According to these results and the appreciation of the yen, the overall sales of this market totaled 22,071 million yen (12.3% decrease on a year-over-year basis) which was considerable decrease compared with last year.
