Japan's Nidec lifts annual profit outlook after first quarter

Japanese electric motor maker Nidec raised its full-year operating profit forecast by 4.3% on Tuesday off the back of a recovery in demand for hard drive motors amid efforts to raise its profitability and a weaker yen. The company raised its expectations for operating profit in the financial year to the end of March 2025 to 240 billion ( 1.53 billion), versus an earlier forecast of 230 billion and an average analyst view of 246.9 billion. Operating profit for the April-June quarter totaled 60.3 billion, largely in line with 60.2 billion in the same period a year earlier and compared with the average estimate of 58.4 billion in a survey of four analysts by LSEG. "Nidec expects rapid demand expansion of power generators which are essential to data centers," the company said in a statement. It said it saw demand for hard drive disk motors recovering and that for water-cooling modules for artificial intelligence expanding rapidly. The company said last month its business in water-cooling modules for generative AI data centers could expand to 1 trillion in sales in the future.