Reporting its second quarter of the fiscal year 2019, Canon reports office business unit sales which includes its printer sales, are down 7.5 percent year-on-year.
In its review of the second quarter, Canon said that for the quarter, the US market remained strong, the European market was “sluggish” and the Chinese economy was slow.
According to Canon, during the second quarter, overall unit sales of office MFDs remained at around the same level as the previous year. Although unit sales of monochrome-model office MFDs decreased, unit sales of colour-model office MFDs increased steadily. Unit sales of laser printers decreased compared with the same period of the previous year mainly due to the slowdown of the market, although sales were strong for new models.
The second quarter net sales decreased by 10.0 percent year-on-year to ¥905.9 billion ($839 million/ €753 million). Net sales for the first half of the year decreased by 10.0 percent year-on-year to ¥1,770.3 billion ($1.64 billion/ €1.47 billion). The gross profit decreased by 14.4 percent year-on-year to ¥406.4 billion ($376 million/ €337 million) mainly due to the negative effects of currency exchange rates and the product mix, according to Canon.
Looking at Canon’s second quarter performance by business segment, unit sales of hardware decreased compared with the same period of the previous year due to decreasing sales of low speed models and sales of consumables also decreased. Total sales for the office business unit in the second quarter were ¥427.9 billion ($396 million/ €355 million), a year-on-year decrease of 7.5 percent. Sales for the combined first six months of the year totalled ¥853.5 billion ($789 million/ €701 million), a year-on-year decrease of 5.7 percent.
Looking forward, Canon expects from the third quarter onwards, the US economy to grow. Canon continued: “While uncertainty surrounding the UK’s exit of the EU is expected to endure, the modest recovery of the European economy is expected to continue amid a bottoming out in exports. The Chinese economy is expected to stave off a downturn in the face of fierce trade friction with the United States through consumer spending stimulus measures, while such emerging economies as India and Southeast Asia, where domestic demand remains steady, are expected to recover moderately. With regard to the Japanese economy, while consumer spending is expected to decline following an increase in the consumption tax rate, the outlook indicates a trend of steady growth supported by relief measures to reduce the impact of the tax increase and the improvement of employment conditions. Looking at the global economy, although the overall economy is expected to recover, there are concerns of further economic slowdown occurring due to such phenomena as long-drawn-out trade friction between China and the United States and other geopolitical risks.”
Canon projects full-year consolidated net sales in 2019 of ¥3,745.0 billion ($34.6 billion/ €31.1 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 5.2 percent.
