Sanyo Electric plans to raise its production capacity for digital cameras by 74% to 20 million units in fiscal 2004 to meet increasing orders, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun has learned. The electronics manufacturer is the world's largest producer of digital cameras, supplying more than 90% of its output to other camera manufacturers on an OEM basis. About five companies, including Nikon Corp and Olympus Corp, are believed to outsource digital camera production to Sanyo.

Next fiscal year, Sanyo will expand the production capacity at its Osaka Prefecture factory from 2 million to 3 million units a year. In addition, the capacity at the company's factories in Dongguan, China, and Bogor, Indonesia, will be doubled to 7 million and 8 million units, respectively, while capacity at its plant in Masan, Korea, will remain unchanged at 2 million units.

Without building new factories, Sanyo will expand these facilities and raise the capacity utilization of their existing lines at an estimated cost of less than 1 billion yen.