Showa Denko K.K. (SDK; Tokyo) announced that its consolidated subsidiary Showa Denko HD Yamagata K.K. (SHDY) will increase the capacity of production facilities to produce aluminum platters to be used as hard disk media (HD media). SDK has also decided to diversify and strengthen its supply chains for aluminum platters. As a result, Showa Denko Group’s capacity to produce aluminum substrates for HD media will be increased for about 30% from the current level. In addition, this investment program has been selected by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a project to be subsidized by a government subsidy program named “the Program for Promoting Investment in Japan to Strengthen Supply Chains.”
The demand for hard disk drives (HDDs) for use in data centers has been increasing. Aluminum platters are key parts of HDDs, to secure enough production capacity to ensure stable supply of aluminum platters meeting to the increase in demand. In addition, SDK now produces aluminum platters in Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan, and the major part of our aluminum platter production facilities are located in Malaysia.
To solve these urgent issues, SDK will increase the capacity of aluminum platter production facilities in its domestic production base SHDY, and diversify and strengthen its supply chains for aluminum platters. Installation of additional production facilities will start in February 2021, and we will start operation of additional facilities in the early part of 2022.