Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. Business Report FY ended Mar. 2019

Financial Overview

(in millions of JPY)
  FY ended Mar. 31, 2019 FY ended Mar. 31, 2018 Rate of Change (%) Factors
Overall
Sales 263,239 263,163 0.0 -
Operating income 14,215 14,109 0.8 -
Profit before tax 16,291 15,854 2.8 -
Profit for the year attributable to owners of the parent  11,569 11,105 4.2 -

 

Factors
-Sales of automobile and motorcycle instruments/meters increased in Asia while sales of automobile instruments/meters decreased in Japan and Europe. As a result, overall sales were essentially flat for year, declining 0.1% year-over-year, to JPY 206,237 million.

Business Developments

-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) announced that Nippon Seiki (Europe) B.V., a consolidated subsidiary of Nippon Seiki handling the sales, design and development of products such as instruments for automobiles and motorcycles in Europe, has relocated its design and development office in Gdańsk, Poland to another location in the same city. The working space of the new office is larger, allowing the company to hire more workers to expand its European operations. In Europe, Nippon Seiki has design and development functions primarily in Germany, the U.K., and Poland. The company has relocated its Gdańsk office in Poland to have a larger working space and is now ready to increase its design and development staff in the country. Nippon Seiki will enhance its design capacity (software development in particular) at the Gdańsk office in an effort to boost its cost competitiveness and development structure.
(From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on November 9, 2018)

-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) will step up efforts to support suppliers through electronics manufacturing services (EMS) by taking advantage of manufacturing technology it has accumulated as a tier 1 supplier of measuring instruments for motorcycles and automobiles. An increasing number of suppliers are in need of automotive printed circuit board assembly technology while vehicle electrification is accelerating. In consideration of this situation, Nippon Seiki will supply tier 2 suppliers and other customers with its know-how about EMS incorporating technological elements in design, development, and manufacturing processes in fields extending to cover electronic control. The company will position this partner EMS business as one of the key strategies in its new medium-term management plan for the three years stating in fiscal year 2018 and aim to expand the business. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun August 24, 2018)

Contract

-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) announced that its European sales subsidiary, Nippon Seiki (Europe) B.V., has started supplying its heads-up displays (HUDs) to Daimler AG for the first time for the new Mercedes-Benz GLE sport utility vehicle. As a result, Nippon Seiki now supplies its products to all of three major German automakers. The HUDs project information on windshields. They are equipped with a full color, thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display, and information is displayed at about three meters from the drivers’ line of sight. Nippon Seiki has adopted high-intensity LEDs as a light source, and realized a clear display even in sunlight. The company has adopted its optical technology to correct distortions and realize a high-definition display. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on May 14, 2019)


 

Mid-term Management Plan

The NS Group Mid-term Management Plan for the three years from 2018 through 2020 was released. The Company expects novel development and globalization of its busiensses. 
Targeted consolidated sales for the fiscal year ending March 2020 are JPY 280 billion.

>>>Financial Forecast for the Next Fiscal Year (Sales, Operating Income etc.)

R&D Expenditure

(in millions of JPY)
  FY ended Dec. 31, 2019 FY ended Dec. 31, 2018 FY ended Dec. 31, 2017
Overall 3,712 4,147 4,404
-Automobile and general-purpose instruments business 3,276 3,804 4,004

R&D Structure

-The R&D structure is comprised of R&D centers such as the R&D Center and NS Technical Center, which are both located in Nagaoka, Niigata Pref., Japan. They are in charge of developing mass-market products for each business area, working closely with the design function and production technology function.

-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) announced that it has set up a branch office to design and develop onboard gauges and instruments in Takizawa City, Iwate Prefecture, to attract human resources and enhance its software design and development capability. The branch office will mainly engage in the development of software platforms. The office will start operations with seven people including the employees from Nippon Seiki and cooperating companies and increase the number to 20 by 2021. The branch office was set up under Nippon Seiki’s instrument design management division and the software design division and is located within the premises of Takizawa City Iwate Prefectural University Innovation Center in Takizawa City, Iwate. The Center is set adjacent to the Iwate Prefectural University Regional Cooperation Research Center, established to provide support for industry-academia collaboration projects. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on February 26, 2019)

R&D Activities

The following outlines the Company's R&D activities on automotive and general-use instruments/meters.

-Development of driver-assist information systems such as head-up-displays (HUDs)
-Development of next-generation human-machine-interface devices
-Development of automotive display units
-Development of technology for smartphones
-Development of optical technology for automotive uses
-Development of automotive sensors

Capital Expenditure

(in millions of JPY)
  FY ended Mar. 31, 2019 FY ended Mar. 31, 2018 FY ended Mar. 31, 2017
Overall 14,220 12,295 12,722
-Automotive and general purpose instrument business 10,569 9,752 9,774


Automotive and General-use Instrument Business
-Capital investment to increase production capacity and revamp facilities to meet product demand for new models; and for facilities to install substrate and assemble instruments.

Planned Capital Investment (Meters for automobile and general-purpose use) (As of Mar. 31, 2019)

Name of company Name of facility
(Location)
Purpose Planned total investment
(in million JPY)
Starting Planned Completion
Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. Head office and plant
(Nagaoka City, Niigata Pref.)
Major business systems 3,742 Dec. 2014 Aug. 2020
Management accounting systems 406 Jan. 2017 Aug. 2020
Takami plant and NS technical center
(Nagaoka City, Niigata Pref.)
HUD production plant 1,052 Jan. 2019 Apr. 2020
NS Electronics Co., Ltd. Head office and plant
(Nagaoka City, Niigata Pref.)
Facilities to mount substrates 289 Aug. 2018 Oct. 2019
NS West Co., Ltd. Miyoshi plant
(Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Pref.)
Facilities to mount substrates 234 Jan. 2019 Aug. 2019
New Sabina Industries, Inc. Ohio, U.S.A. Facilities to manufacture automotive instruments 139 Jan. 2019 Oct. 2020
Nippon Seiki De Mexico S.A. De C.V. Nuevo León, Mexico Facilities to manufacture automotive instruments 474 Jan. 2019 Oct. 2020
Thai Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. Chonburi, Thailand Plant 671 Sep. 2018 Jul. 2020
Air conditioning repair 127 Dec. 2018 Oct. 2019
Wuhan Nissei Display System Co., Ltd. Hubei, China Facilities to manufacture automotive instruments 270 Nov. 2018 Aug. 2019

Investments in Japan

-NS Advantech Co., Ltd., (NS Advantech), a consolidated subsidiary of Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd., announced on December 18 that it will establish a second Nagaoka plant for coloring materials because of the growing plastic material market. NS Advantech engages in the production of measuring instruments for automobiles and motorcycles, molding of plastic products, as well as sales of plastic and coloring materials, in Japan. NS Advantech anticipates that demand for plastics with low foreign matter content will increase, and intends to enter new fields of next-generation automotive high-performance plastics. The company estimates that its order intake will be twice the capacity of its existing plants in 2030, and expects to strengthen its production capacity by constructing the new plant. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on December 20, 2018)

Investment outside Japan

New Production Plant Constructed in Poland
-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) announced that it will expand the production capacity of head-up displays (HUDs). The company will set up a new company to produce onboard gauges and displays in Lodz, Poland, in February 2019. In addition, a new production facility will be installed at its Nagaoka Plant in Niigata, Japan, to increase the production of concave mirrors, key components of HUDs, investing approximately JPY 1 billion. The new company in Poland, tentatively named as NS Poland, will be set up at a cost of PLN 7 million (approximately JPY 210 million), 100% funded by Nippon Seiki. The Polish company, which will have a production capacity of 1 million HUDs, will begin operations in October 2020. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on January 29, 2019)

Expanded Office Overseeing Instruments
-Nippon Seiki Co., Ltd. (Nippon Seiki) announced that Nippon Seiki (Europe) B.V., a consolidated subsidiary of Nippon Seiki handling the sales, design and development of products such as instruments for automobiles and motorcycles in Europe, has relocated its design and development office in Gdańsk, Poland to another location in the same city. The working space of the new office is larger, allowing the company to hire more workers to expand its European operations. In Europe, Nippon Seiki has design and development functions primarily in Germany, the U.K., and Poland. The company has relocated its Gdańsk office in Poland to have a larger working space and is now ready to increase its design and development staff in the country. Nippon Seiki will enhance its design capacity (software development in particular) at the Gdańsk office in an effort to boost its cost competitiveness and development structure.
(From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on November 9, 2018)