TOKYO, May 29, 2008—Canon Inc. announced today plans to newly establish Hita Canon Materials Inc., a manufacturing base in Hita City, Oita Prefecture, to boost production of key parts for toner cartridges and promote community-based business operations. The decision reflects a revision to the plans announced in November 2007 regarding the construction of the Oita Canon Materials Inc. Hita Plant.
In recent years, steadily growing demand for toner cartridges has created a pressing need to expand production capacity for highly functional components used to produce toner cartridges, including rollers and toner. Accordingly, making use of its latest automated production systems, Canon has decided to focus production at the new Hita City production base on highly functional components, which will be supplied to the company's toner cartridge production bases in Japan and overseas.
Additionally, Canon will strengthen technical cooperation with the Canon Group by making the new company a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon Chemicals Inc. (Headquarters: Tsukuba, Ibaraki; President: Masaaki Hirooka), which currently handles the development and production of highly functional toner-cartridge components.
