Konica Minolta 2006 Annual Report Download - page 21

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19
OPTICS
Net sales and operating income for the Optics business increased over
the previous fiscal year on sales growth of LCD-use TAC film, supported by
diffusion of LCD TVs and growing demand for glass hard disk substrates.
For the fiscal year ended March 2006, the LCD-use TAC film business
recorded high growth supported by expanding demand for LCD TVs. In
particular, high performance products such as large LCD-use viewing
angle expansion film, which the Group has been emphasizing as a growth
area, helped to drive sales. In addition, in order to respond to the expan-
sion in demand, the third production line was put into operation and
construction began on the fourth production line.
In glass hard disk substrates, in addition to existing 2.5-inch substrates,
favorable growth was seen in small diameter products for mobile equip-
ment supported by growth in new applications such as notebook PCs and
other portable digital home appliances with hard disk drives. As a result,
sales recorded strong growth.
While the Group continued to maintain a high market share in the opti-
cal pickup market, sales were affected by customer inventory adjustments
and unit price declines. Although sales volumes of lenses for recordable
CD and DVD products increased, sales volumes of lenses other than
object lenses decreased, which resulted in a decline in overall sales.
Going forward, in next-generation pickup lenses which are expected
to be a major pillar of the optical pickup lens segment, technology devel-
opment for both the Blu-ray disk (BD) and high definition (HD) DVD
formats has been completed, and high-volume production lines for the
new products will be in operation in the current fiscal year.
The expansion of sales for micro lens units for mobile phones with
camera functions was supported by the provision of high value-added
products such as the world’s first lens unit with 5 mega pixel-compatible
auto focus. In addition, microcamera module sales volume doubled from
the previous fiscal year supported by full-fledged volume production
mostly for overseas sales.
While sales of DSC-use lens units were flat with the previous year, sales
of VCR-use lens units were strong especially for new products, stimulated
by products compatible with high vision and hard disk drive-equipped
VCR products.
Given the above, consolidated sales for the Optics business in the fiscal
year ended March 2006 were ¥110.4 billion, while operating income was
¥17.6 billion.
0
30
60
90
120
02 03 04 05 06
Net Sales
(Billions of Yen)
0
6
12
18
24
02 03 04 05 06
Operating Income
(Billions of Yen)
Takashi Matsumaru
President
Konica Minolta Opto, Inc.