Japanese office equipment giant Canon plans to boost production of inkjet printers by over 20 per cent next year and may build another printer factory in Vietnam.

Katsuichi Shimizu, chief executive in charge of inkjet product operations, was quoted by Reuters as saying Canon would lift output to about 22 million units in 2006 from an estimated 18 million this year, aiming to meet growing demand and expand its market share. Canon, the world’s third-largest inkjet printer firm after US-based Hewlett-Packard Company and Japanese rival Seiko Epson Corp, would produce the extra output at facilities in Thailand and Vietnam, Shimizu said.
Shimizu also said Canon, which is scheduled to start operations at a new $100-million factory in Vietnam in June, was considering building another factory or expanding existing facilities in the country in the next few years.
“This would probably happen within three years,” Shimizu said, explaining that some production of middle-end printers could be shifted from Thailand, freeing up space at its Thai facilities to increase output of high-end machines.
“It would basically be low-end and middle-end printers in Vietnam and middle-end and high-end models in Thailand,” he said.
Canon secured 44 per cent of the domestic inkjet market in 2004, grabbing the top spot from rival Seiko Epson for the first time in eight years, according to research firm Gartner Japan.
Seiko Epson held a 41 per cent share in unit terms.
But Canon has been less successful in other big markets such as Europe and the United States, partly because it has had a relatively weak lineup of multi-function printers (MFP), which unlike single-function models can also copy and scan.
MFPs account for more than half of all printers sold in the United States, compared with 34 per cent in Japan.
“We will launch a lot of MFPs this year,” Shimizu said.