SDK's 0.85-Inch HD Media Adopted in Toshiba's Mobile Phone.

Tokyo, Japan, Mar 8, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - Showa Denko  K.K.'s (SDK) 0.85-inch-diameter hard disk media, the smallest in the world, has been adopted by Toshiba Corporation in its latest mobile phone "MUSIC-HDD W41T". The new mobile phone, containing a four gigabyte hard disk drive, can store approximately 2,000 pieces of music and use KDDI's "au LISTEN MOBILE SERVICE."

In June 2005, SDK started commercial production of this type of media, which is approximately 22 mm in diameter, or the size of a 100-yen coin. A hard disk drive containing the 0.85-inch media is almost the same in size as a memory card. The HD media provides large capacity sufficient for receipt of music via Internet.

A holder of the W41T-model mobile phone can enjoy the contents of music CDs transmitted via PC or download music using a mobile transmission service, which is expected to become very popular. The mobile phone can also handle up to 5,000 pieces of pictures and up to 18 hours of moving pictures.

SDK is the world's largest independent supplier of HD media (based on our estimate as of March 2006), continuing to launch new products using advanced technologies. In June 2005, SDK also started world's first commercial production of HD media based on the perpendicular magnetic recording technology, enabling a dramatic increase in storage capacity.

SDK is building a new HD media plant in Singapore for start-up in November 2006. Together with expansions at the existing locations in Chiba (Japan), Singapore and Taiwan, SDK's total HD media production capacity will increase to 24 million disks per month by the end of 2008, or 2.2 times that of 2005.

About Showa Denko K.K.

Showa Denko (SDK)(TSE: 4004)(OTC: SHWDF) is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. SDK makes petrochemicals (ethylene, propylene), aluminum products (ingots, rods) electronic equipment (hard disks for computers), and inorganic materials (ceramics, carbons). The company has overseas operations and a joint venture with Netherlands-based Montell and Nippon Petrochemicals to make and market polypropylenes. In March 2001, SDK merged with Showa Denko Aluminum Corporation to strengthen the high-value-added fabricated aluminum products operations, and is today developing next-generation optical communications-use wafers.

Source: Showa Denko K.K.

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