Canon unit cleared to build $63 million plant in Hung Yen

A unit of Canon Inc., the world’s largest camera maker, may spend as much as US$130 million to develop a parts factory in the northern province of Hung Yen to supply its operations in Asia.

In November, the provincial industrial zone management board granted Canon Electronics Inc. a license to build the $63.4 million factory, with construction scheduled to start this month, Vu Quoc Nghi, head of the board’s investment management department, said in a telephone interview Monday.

Canon Electronics, a Japan-based maker of camera parts and office machinery, said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on September 10 that it would form a Vietnamese unit, Canon Electronics Vietnam, in October this year.

The company will produce electronics parts starting in July at a factory located in Hung Yen Province,

The plant, located on an 11 hectare site in Pho Noi A Industrial Zone, is scheduled for completion in July, Nghi said.

The company told the industrial zone management board it plans to spend as much as $130 million in two stages, including an additional investment of more than $66 million to expand the plant, though it hasn’t yet applied for approval of the second phase, Nghi said.

Takahiro Tomiyama, an official in the accounting department of Canon Electronics in Tokyo, said the person authorized to comment on Vietnamese operations was not available Tuesday.

The factory will export all of its products, including miniature motors used in cameras, laser printers and photocopying machines, to Canon Electronics’s digital-products assembly plants in Asia, Nghi said.

Source: Bloomberg

Update from: http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=44239