NTN Corporation

It was competitor Nippon Seiko (now known as NSK) that began bearing production in Japan in 1914. In 1918, Nishizono Ironworks, a factory located in Uchibori, Mie Prefecture, began producing ball bearings.

Five years after Nishizono Ironworks began producing bearings, the company merged with Tomoe Trading to manufacture and market products under the name "NTN". In 1927, Nishizono and Tomoe separated, with Nishizono establishing a new entity named NTN Manufacturing Company.

In 1934, the company reorganized as a joint-stock company, changing its name to Toyo Bearing Manufacturing. When Japan invaded Manchuria, the demand for bearings increased due to the war, and manufacturing productivity followed suit. In 1938, Toyo created a domestic subsidiary named Showa Bearing Manufacturing Company, in Mukogun, Hyogo Prefecture. Toyo absorbed Showa into its organization the following year, making the facility into its Mukogawa plant and merging Mukogawa's operations with those of their newly established plant in Kuwana.

By 1945, raw materials shortages that resulted from World War II rendered Japanese bearing manufacturers unable to produce at full capacity. However, in the late 1940s, as Japan recovered from combat, demand from the war-torn country and its intracontinental neighbors increased.

In the late 1940s, Toyo established a marketing division named NTN Sales. The company became one of several major bearing manufacturers operating in Japan during this period. In 1954, NTN Sales received the Deming Prize for statistical quality control. In subsequent years, the company expanded its product range, including the manufacture of expansion-compensating bearings.

During the 1960s, the company reorganized its operations through the creation of subsidiaries focused on specific product lines. Joint ventures and overseas subsidiaries were established in Europe, North America, and Asia to support manufacturing and distribution activities.

In 1971, Toyo started Toyo Bearing Okayama Company to produce automotive tapered bearings and roller bearings in addition to founding American NTN Bearing Manufacturing Corporation. It was during that same year that Toyo finished construction on a manufacturing facility in Schiller Park, their first manufacturing facility in North America. Additionally, a sales division, NTN Trading-Hong Kong and a manufacturing segment, NTN Kugellagerfabrik were created.

The following year, the company's name was changed from Toyo Bearing Manufacturing to NTN Toyo Bearing Company. Like other Japanese bearing manufacturers, NTN became so successful that it created angst among their overseas competitors, especially those in the United Kingdom. England in fact, urged Japanese companies to restrict exports from 1972 to 1974. Other countries in Europe, however, were quite adamant about procuring such superior quality bearings, and continued to do so. For this reason, the company's growth was uninterrupted during the mid-1970s. In fact, from 1973 to 1975, NTN Manufacturing Canada, NTN de Mexico and NTN Suramericana were opened, in addition to another factory in Elgin, Illinois.

In 1977 however, NTN Toyo posted a loss of 1 billion JPY due to the increasing value of the Japanese Yen making exports more expensive. Because most of their bearings were still made inside the borders of Japan, the prices of the bearings were still subject to changes in international exchange rates. Additionally, many Japanese bearing manufacturers were penalized by the European Economic Community for predatory pricing. As a result, in 1978, for the first time in over a decade, NTN Toyo withheld dividend payments.

The value of the yen soon decreased however, and the company's exports returned to normal. Strong customer demand also resulting from the weakening yen resulted in increased sales. By 1979, all overseas NTN Toyo manufacturing facilities were once again operating at or above full production capacity.

After NTN Toyo recovered from its downturn, the company looked to expand its constant-velocity joint business in the United States. By expanding on all of their product lines in this part of the world, NTN Toyo was able to reduce the number of goods exported from Japan. In 1982, the company built an addition onto its Okayama plant for the purpose of building automotive joints. In addition, a joint venture with Hyundai Motors had this business partner manufacturing joints via a license from NTN Toyo. The following year, NTN Toyo also licensed Lepco Company and Taiway to produce additional constant-velocity joints.

From 1984 to 1985, NTN Toyo concentrated on tapered roller bearings at its United States facilities such as their Elgin factory. This building was added onto in 1984 in order to produce such bearings at a higher rate of production. In 1985, NTN Toyo Nagano Works, a designer and manufacturer of precision miniature bearings, also opened for business. That same year, NTN Toyo partnered with Federal-Mogul Corporation to produce tapered bearings and cylindrical roller bearings. The new joint venture, NTN-Bower Corporation, inherited two Federal-Mogul facilities and an additional research facility. NTN Toyo initially owned 60% of this joint venture, but purchased the remaining 40% of NTN-Bower Corporation two years later to fully acquire the company.

In 1986, the company constructed its Kuwana plant, NTN Toyo's first factory dedicated to bearings used in aerospace products. Soon after this facility was established, Timken Company claimed that NTN Toyo and other Japanese bearing makers were selling their products below market prices. As a result, the United States Department of Commerce found those companies guilty of predatory pricing. NTN Toyo was ordered to pay a financial penalty equal to 47% of the prices of the products that the company exported to that country.

In 1988, NTN Toyo established its first technical center in Michigan, added a bearing-hub factory in Elgin, and partnered with GKN Transmission and Borg-Warner to produce constant-velocity joints in Australia under the name Unidrive. Borg-Warner owned 50% of the company, GKN owned 30% and NTN Toyo owned 20%.

In the following year, NTN Toyo changed its name to NTN Corporation while creating a new constant-velocity joint factory and research and development center for NTN Driveshaft in Columbus, Indiana.

As a result of globalization, with bearings being further governed by international guidelines, NTN consolidated its foreign operations while trying to expand further into cutting edge markets. In order to expand North American operations, the company formed NTN USA Corporation, which was slated to become a holding company for their existing US divisions. They also established an office to oversee the fabrication activities of their existing operations. One of NTN's objectives was to begin production of constant-velocity joints in North America. One of their first steps in doing so was the 1996 purchase of Federal-Mogul's ball bearings sector.

In addition to North America, NTN established in 2000 a constant-velocity joint and bearing manufacturing facility in Thailand called NTN Manufacturing Company Limited. To manage the explosion of the company's portfolio, colloquially known as the "Four Base Production and Sales System", NTN reorganized its operations. As a result, NTN Sales Corporation was made a part of the conglomerate.

The following year, the company partnered with FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schafer AG to sell bearings in both North America and Europe. This partnership helped create factories in both Portugal and Hungary. NTN also started its "Management System Transformation Project" with the goal of making its regional and international operations more efficient. A Program Office was created to manage a number of subprojects. These subprojects were created to improve client relations and improve productivity.^[1]

The company then in 2002, took part in three separate joint ventures. First, they set up Shanghai NTN Corporation for the purpose of producing constant-velocity joint cassettes. Second, working with Nidec Corporation, created NTN-NIDEC Corporation in Zhejiang, China. Then, in their final joint venture that year, the company, in conjunction with Taiwan Yulon Group Corporation, created Guangzhou NTN-Yulon Drivetrain to fabricate additional constant velocity joints. The year after this, three new companies were formed, two in the United States and one in China. The two American companies, named NTK Precision Axle Corporation and Asahi Forge of America Corporation provided heat treatment and forging services, respectively. The company in China was called Beijing NTN-Seohan Driveshaft, and served as an additional manufacturing facility for their constant-velocity joint platform.

In 2004, NTN Mie Corporation and Shangzhou NTN-Guangyang Corporation were formed for bearing fabrication while Nagano Works, Kuwana Works, Iwata Works, and Okayama Works earned ISO/TS16949 and ISO9001 certifications. Next year, NTN Kamiina Corporation and NTN's General Research & Development Center (Iwata) were formed domestically while NTN Investment Corporation (China), NTN-NIDEC (Thailand) and NTN Manufacturing India were formed abroad. The year after, in 2006, NTN Corporation made two grand investments. These investments included infusions into IFA-Antriebstechnik GmbH, a producer of constant velocity joints in IFA Group as well as SNR Roulements, a sub-tier of Renault (which became part of NTN Corporation in 2008). During that same year, NTN Fukuroi Corporation became the company's third local factory for constant velocity joints.

From 2007 to 2009, NTN Corporation entered the large component market by establishing NTN Hakui Corporation in Ishikawa. This facility specialized in turning large bearings, while Nanjing Puzhen NTN Railway Bearing Company was formed for the fabrication of railway bearings. Soon after, in conjunction with Korea Flange Co., Ltd. KOFCO Group added Seohan-NTN Driveshaft USA Corporation to its United States conglomerate. In addition to these ventures, NTN HoudatsuShimizu Corporation was set up to manufacture super-large machinery parts and bearings, NTN Transmissions Europe Crézancy was established by the acquisition of Setfoge's Crézancy facility by NTN Transmissions Europe and NTN Shika Corporation was put in place to forge large bearings. Additionally, at the end of this period, NTN's Elemental Technology R&D Center was formed in Kuwana.

In 2010 NTN entered the wind energy market via the establishment of Seohan-NTN Bearing Company. This was a joint-venture with Seohan in South Korea. Additionally, NTN Driveshaft do Brasil and NTN Noto Corporation were formed for constant velocity joints and industrial machinery bearings. Most recently, however, NTN partnered with Luoyang LYC to distribute bearings in China, with mass production in the country expected to begin in 2012.^[3]