NSK Boosts Its Business in Emerging Markets

Tokyo, Japan, March 7, 2013 - NSK Ltd. (NSK; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Norio Otsuka) announced today that it has established new branches in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the Middle East, both of which are important emerging markets. Business activities have begun to commence operations at both sites. Demand for bearings is projected to grow considerably in emerging countries as industries develop and infrastructure expands. Accordingly, NSK is adding these new branches and increasing its sales distributors in an effort to expand its sales areas and market share.

1. Objective of establishing the new branches

NSK has established these branches to respond to a wide range of customer needs and improve customer satisfaction.

2. Overview of the new branches

(1) Branch in the Middle East

Branch name	NSK Bearings Gulf Trading CO.
Date of establishment	April 10, 2012
Location	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Description of business	Sales and technical support covering the entire Middle East
Main products handled	Bearings, precision machinery and parts
Start of operations	December 2012

(2) Branch in Russia

Branch name	NSK Polska SP.Z O.O. Russian branch
Date of establishment	November 13, 2012
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Description of business	Marketing, sales promotion, technical support in Russia
Main business domain	Industrial machinery business bearings and precision machinery and parts
Start of operations	March 2013

3. About NSK's business in the Middle East and Russia

In the past, NSK UK Ltd. a sales　subsidiaries of NSK Europe Ltd. in UK, had been responsible for the market in the Middle East. The NSK Bearings Middle East Trading Co., Ltd. (Istanbul, Turkey) was responsible for developing this business.

During recent years in the Middle East market, manufacturing industries, particularly industries related to infrastructure and petrochemicals, are growing. In line with this trend, demand for bearings is projected to grow also. NSK has been meeting new market needs and developing new contacts in the Middle East by participating in various industrial machinery exhibitions.

With this in mind, NSK has set up its first branch in the Middle East, based in Dubai, UAE, a major business hub in the region and neighboring Gulf countries, with the intention of developing latent demand in the marketplace and expanding sales expansion in the future.

In the Russian market, demand for bearings and other machinery components has continued to grow on the back of steady economic growth driven by industrial development, including the automotive industry and industries related to energy and natural resources such as oil and natural gas. While NSK Polska Sp.z o.o., a sales subsidiaries of NSK Europe Ltd. had mainly covered the Russian market in the past, NSK has now established its first branch in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to facilitate its customer.

• * Saint Petersburg: As Russia's second major city after Moscow, this city is an industrial center with a strategically located port, a receptive business environment and a stable local government. It is also an international city with many thriving industries, including shipbuilding, machinery manufacturing and metalworking.

About the NSK Group

Established in 1916, NSK produced the first ball bearings made in Japan. Over its history, NSK has developed a wide range of bearings and supplied them around the world, making significant contributions to the development of industry and advancements in machinery. At present, NSK holds the top market share in Japan and the third largest share in the world for bearings.

By applying its high-precision processing technologies refined over many years of manufacturing bearings, NSK began diversifying into automotive products and precision machinery and parts at an early stage. The NSK Group has been aggressively expanding beyond Japan since the 1960s, and currently operates 63 production sites in 12 countries. NSK began operating in emerging countries relatively early on. For example, it established a sales site in Brazil as early as 1970.

NSK has been expanding its business in fast-growing emerging countries, and it is aiming to achieve more than one-quarter of its total sales in emerging countries as soon as possible. To help achieve this goal, NSK expanded its operations in South America in March 2010, setting up a company in Peru to sell industrial machinery bearings. NSK is also working with its Brazilian subsidiary, established in 1970, to cultivate the market for mining equipment bearings in South America.

NSK has also been focusing on the market in the Middle East and Russia, which are demonstrating remarkable economic growth. To continue making progress in emerging markets, NSK has now established branches in Dubai, UAE, and Saint Petersburg, Russia.

These new branches will work to fully localize our business activities in each region in cooperation with local sales agents dealing in industrial machinery bearings.

Likewise, NSK intends to continue enlarging its sales distributors in emerging nations, including China, countries in South America and the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe, and ASEAN.

In addition to developing high-performance products for advanced countries, NSK has been leveraging its world-leading technological capabilities in more recent years to develop products designed for the severe market conditions in emerging countries, as well as products for the so-called high-volume market that have comparatively limited functions but are highly competitive in terms of price. In this way, NSK focuses on develop products for the emerging markets.

NSK plans to continue to develop its business globally by expanding its sales areas, giving a finely response to market needs, uncovering new potential market needs and developing products for the emerging markets.