Sony Corp, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, will increase production of digital cameras in China tenfold to meet demand for the devices in Asia's fastest growing market and to lower costs.
Sony, which has a fifth of the world's digital-camera market, will increase production to 500,000 units in the fiscal year starting April 1, Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada said, confirming an earlier article in the Nihon Keizai newspaper.
The cameras, which will be made at a Shanghai plant, will be sold in China, she said.
Worldwide sales of digital cameras are expected to rise to 40 million units this year from 25 million units last year, according to Hideki Wakabayashi, an analyst at Mizuho Securities Co.
China's digital-camera market will probably account for 1 million units, Sony's Imada said.
"The digital-camera market in China is growing rapidly," Imada said. "The factory will be able to make a full lineup of digital cameras this year."
The added production would represent a tenfold increase over the current fiscal year's expected output, Imada said.
A Cybershot in the arm
Sony, which makes the Cybershot digital camera, said last month digital cameras were among its best-selling electronics in the three months ended Dec. 31.
Digital cameras are also fueling sales of semiconductors and small-sized liquid-crystal displays, components that the Tokyo-based company also makes.
The company's video division, which includes digital cameras, accounted for about 11 percent of Sony's total sales in the three months ended December.
"It's a very positive move as the production of digital cameras is growing rapidly," said Nishichi Omori, general manager at UFJ Asset Management, which manages about ?1 trillion (US$8.4 billion) in assets.
Sony last week said it will spend ?25 billion to boost production of the chips used in digital cameras.
Sales of products such as digital cameras to holiday shoppers helped Sony increase operating profit 14 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31. Sony's net income almost doubled in the third quarter to ?125.4 billion.
Sony's shares have declined about 4 percent since the company reported earnings for the October-December period on Jan. 29. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 2.4 percent in the same period.
Shares of Sony fell 2 percent to 4,590 on Friday.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”