OSAKA -- Bearings maker NTN is expected to pour 40 billion yen ($376 million) into capital expenditures for the year ending March 2017, a level exceeding depreciation expenses for the first time in four years. Capital spending is projected to grow 10% on the year, while depreciation will shrink 1% to 37.8 billion yen. "We will use 40% of the investments for industrial equipment and other areas outside of autoparts," President Hiroshi Ohkubo told The Nikkei. The Japanese company was ordered in fiscal 2015 to pay damages in arbitration over subpar bearings. Operating cash flow will reach a positive 55 billion yen or so this fiscal year in the absence of the associated extraordinary charge. As for cash flow from investment activities, outlays will increase to roughly 45 billion yen, a level not seen since fiscal 2012. NTN does not plan to raise funds externally. NTN "will boost the share of sales from non-autoparts operations from 30% to 50% in the medium to long term," Ohkubo said. The company will spend about 3 billion yen to build a heat treatment plant by next March in Ishikawa Prefecture, where the company produces such items as large bearings for wind turbines. A French plant's output capacity in aircraft engine bearings will rise 40% within the next three years. It has been receiving "strong orders from U.S. and British manufacturers," Ohkubo said. Electric vehicles, which are becoming more prevalent, use far fewer bearings than gasoline-powered cars. Demand from construction and mining machinery is also slumping, forcing NTN to cultivate demand in such areas as renewable-energy equipment. Earnings have taken a hit in recent years, partly from antitrust fines on members of a bearings cartel.