The OEM has released its financial reports for the third quarter of the year, ended September the 30th, with a series of drops in both sales and revenue announced.
Canon’s net sales for Q3 fell to ¥926.5 billion ($8.27 billion/€7.29 billion), a 6.8 percent drop on the same period of 2017, when sales hit ¥994.5 billion ($8.88 billion/€7.82 billion). There was an even larger fall in the company’s operating profit, which decreased from ¥77.9 billion ($695.7 million/€613 million) last year to ¥68.3 billion ($610 million/€537.5 million) in 2018 – a fall of 12.4 percent.
Furthermore, Canon’s income (before income tax) fell by 23.6 percent, tumbling to ¥67 billion ($598.3 million/€527.3 million) from the previous year’s figure of ¥87.8 billion ($784.1 million/€690.9 million). Net income attributable to Canon Inc. fell even further, from ¥63 billion ($562.6 million/€495.7 million) to ¥46.2 billion ($412.6 million/€363.5 million) – a 26.6 percent decrease on Q3 2017.
Alongside these figures, Canon also released its results for the year-to-date, taking in the first nine months of 2018. There were once again multiple dips, albeit smaller percentages. Net sales fell for the first three months of the year, compared to the same period of 2017, dropping 2.2 percent from ¥2.96 trillion ($26.43 billion/€23.29 billion) to ¥2.89 trillion ($25.81 billion/€22.74 billion).
Operating profit, meanwhile, fell to ¥243.3 billion ($2.17 billion/€1.91 billion) from ¥245 billion ($2.18 billion/€1.92 billion), a fall of 0.7 percent, and income (before income tax) fell to ¥262.9 billion ($2.34 billion/€2.06 billion) from ¥265.3 billion ($2.37 billion/€2.08 billion) – a slightly larger fall of 0.9 percent. Net income attributable to the OEM fell 3.4 percent in the first nine months of the year, from ¥187.3 billion ($1.67 billion/€1.47 billion) to ¥181 billion ($1.61 billion/€1.42 billion).
There was brighter news in the company’s Office Segment, however, which saw a 0.2 percent rise in Sales in Q3, from ¥429.3 billion ($3.83 billion/€3.37 billion) in Q3 2017 to ¥430.3 billion ($3.84 billion/€3.38 billion) in Q3 2018. It was the only Segment to record year-on-year growth, with Canon’s Imaging Systems, Medical Systems, and Industry and Others Segments facing falls of 15.6 percent, 4 percent, and 8.8 percent respectively.
Overall sales in Japan increased, by 2.3 percent, but there were fewer reasons to be cheerful everywhere else, with a drop in sales of 5.4 percent in the Americas, 6.2 percent in Europe, and 15.5 percent in Asia and Oceania.
“In the third quarter, we were impacted by a short pause in camera sales, and OLED related investment by customers, which has run its course for the time being. Even in this severe environment, however, we made steady progress in strengthening our ability to generate profit, by raising our gross profit margin and curbing expenses,” the company explained.
It also highlighted the impacting of the ongoing trade war between the USA and China, stating that “escalating trade friction between the United States and China and other factors have raised uncertainty about the future.” Despite this, Canon pledged to “work to further expand sales of new products that we have introduced as we enter the year-end selling season. At the same time, we will work to achieve our aim of second consecutive year of profit growth, raising profitability even further through a concerted group effort.”
