TOKYO: Japan's Canon Inc. said Thursday that it was delaying the construction of a new manufacturing plant for a second time because of the global economic downturn.
Canon, which produces cameras and office equipment, had originally planned to start building the factory in late 2008 in southern Oita Prefecture.
It first delayed the start in November because of the worsening recession, and gave no new target date for the start of construction.
“The significant decline in demand has continued for longer than expected with no clear indication of when a recovery might be expected,” a company statement said.
Canon in December had shelved plans to build another domestic plant for digital cameras in southern Nagasaki prefecture.
The company, once hailed as a success story in Japan's recovery from the 1990s recession, is one of many Japanese manufacturers cutting output and jobs to cope with the global economic downturn.
cr
6 Comments
Hello,
No good news indeed.
Have you got any figures on how many people are being laid off at Canon?
I am working as sales/tech support in automotive industry. From my insight, I can see that we hit the bottom now, I expect a slow economic recovery starting around the end of this year.
Stock markets already recovered quite a bit, although I am concerned that there will be one more hickup before a sustainable growth.
The industry will start increasing production significantly only in Q1, 2010.
The unemployment will decrease only mid 2010.
These are my predictions for the near future… what is yours?
Sincerly yours,
Hendric from Austria
“Stock markets already recovered quite a bit, although I am concerned that there will be one more hickup before a sustainable growth.”
I think the momentum for the second dive is building up.
You are being extremely optimistic Hendric, we haven’t seen the worst of it yet, unfortunately :(
Dear DeeWee,
In terms of negative effects on our jobs, you are certainly right. For people like you and me, it will get worse before it will get better. But I do see the first indicators of a beginning recovery; this will not happen immediately and will definitively take 2-3 years to reach the levels of productivity and employment of before the crisis.
Also, to address the reply of Alex, I agree that the tremendous up-rise of the stock markets is certainly premature and exaggerated (stocks always react early and sharply). There will be a “dive” again, probably, before a sustainable recovery takes place. Nevertheless, the tendency is there, and it goes in the right direction.
Kind regards,
Hendric
the biggest problem with all of this in this particular industry is that while I’m sure overall sales are down both Canon and Nikon have lens, camera, and battery shortages over the entire US which I’m guessing is indicative of the supply and demand across the world.
both companies say they decrease production due to decreased purchasing but that seems a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy?
People can’t buy what is not in the stores….
JC