CIPA Press Release

September 12, 2006 - In August 2006 the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA, President: Michio Kariya) reviewed the January 31, 2006 forecast of 2006-2008 shipments of various types of cameras and related goods. Total shipment of digital cameras increased by a strong 20.3% in volume from the previous year during the first 7 months of 2006. Domestic shipment of digital cameras with built-in lenses increased 7.9%, and export of digital cameras with built-in lenses increased 22.5%. As a result, though the estimation at the beginning of the year predicted that the total shipment of digital cameras in 2006 would rise 4.0% from the previous year, a total of 72.97 million digital cameras are now forecast to be shipped in 2006, up 12.7% from the previous year.

At the beginning of this year, we predicted a year-on-year decrease of 38.0% in volume in the total 2006 shipment of silver halide cameras. However, shipment decreased 67.1% from the previous year during the first 7 months of 2006, and a significant downward trend was observed in both domestic and foreign markets.