Fuji Photo Film Co Press Release

Reuters
Tokyo, January 19, 2005|15:31 IST  

Japan’s Fuji Photo Film Co said on Wednesday it expects its global digital camera sales to grow 21 per cent in the next business year, and unveiled plans to cut production costs by 10-15 per cent by using more common parts.

Fuji Photo, the world’s fifth-largest vendor of digital cameras, is struggling to maintain profit margins along with other players in the industry due to sharp price falls and slowing growth rates in more mature markets like Japan.

Confirming plans first unveiled by the company in an interview with Jiji news agency, a Fuji Photo spokesman said it would aim to sell 8.5 million digital cameras in the business year starting April 1.

If met, the target would represent a rise of 21.4 per cent compared with Fuji Photo’s goal of selling seven million digital cameras in the current year ending March 31. It lowered that forecast from 8.5 million units in October due to sluggish demand.

To boost profit margins, Fuji Photo said it would use more common parts to lower procurement costs and would also reduce the number of models in its product line-up to about 10 in 2005-06 from 16 in the current year.

It will try to produce models that can be outfitted with its own charge coupled devices (CCD), image sensor chips that capture light and convert it into electronic signals.

Currently some of Fuji Photo’s compact digital cameras use CCD’s produced by other firms, slicing into margins.

Fuji Photo also said it as planning to boost production in China to be closer to the country’s fast-growing market. It currently makes about one-third of its digital cameras in China but will raise that to 40 per cent in 2005-06.

Shares of Fuji Photo were up 1.36 per cent at 3,740 yen as of 0524 GMT, outperforming the Nikkei average’s 0.08 per cent rise.