Canon Inc, Japan's largest maker of office equipment, said on Friday it would invest about 10 billion yen ($93.99 million) to nearly double its annual production of ink-jet printers in 2005 compared with last year.
Canon said it will build new plants on existing manufacturing sites in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo, and in Vietnam, while boosting production lines at a printer factory in Thailand, which is currently running near full capacity.
It said the moves would lift its production of ink-jet printers, including multi-function and single-function models, to about 20 million units in 2005. Last year it produced around 10.6 million ink-jet printers.
Canon is trying to strengthen its presence in the world-wide printer market but faces severe competition from US-based Hewlett-Packard Co and Japan's Seiko Epson Corp
According to Gartner Dataquest, Canon held 16.2 percent of the global printer market in 2003, third behind Seiko Epson at 22.1 percent and Hewlett-Packard's 39.5 percent.
Canon estimates its global market share in single-function ink-jet printers was about 20 percent in unit terms last year.
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