Fujifilm to Move Camera Ops

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. said Wednesday it will transfer its digital camera production operations to China, subcontract its CCD production to Toshiba, close a subsidiary, sell some property and cut an unspecified number of jobs in order "to create a solid business structure optimized for the digital camera market amidst intensifying competition," the company said in a statement.

Its digital camera production operation will be transferred to Fujifilm's factory in Suzhou, and it will subcontract the CCD preprocess production (wafer process) to Toshiba Corp.

The company said as a result it will dissolve Fujifilm Photonix Co Ltd. in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, and will sell related land and buildings in Miyagi to Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. The transfer of digital camera production operations from Japan to China is scheduled for August 2008.

"The aim is to lower fixed costs and boost efficiency," Fujifilm spokesman Tatsuo Suzuki said in a Reuters article. About 200 Fujifilm Photonix employees will be transferred to a new unit that will handle after-sales services and back-end production, such as assembly and testing, of CCDs, the article said.

For more information, visit: www.fujifilm.com