Nikon 2011 Annual Report Download - page 10

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8
Please provide your
outlook for business
environment faced by
the Nikon Group during
the fiscal year ending
March 2012.
MAKOTO KIMURA
Representative Director,
President, Member of the Board
In the Instruments Company, we focused on high-end systems for the
bioscience field and worked on product launches and sales expansion of
highly differentiated products in the industrial instruments field. As a result,
the Instruments Company posted a large increase in net sales and reduced
its operating loss for the fiscal year, while recording in the fourth quarter its
first quarterly operating income in 12 quarters.
The business environment is
recovering, and we envisage that
the growth trend will continue
during the fiscal year ending
March 2012. In particular, we think
that growth in emerging countries will be a key driver. Further, although the
Great East Japan Earthquake caused damage to component supply chains,
the situation is improving more rapidly than we originally anticipated.
In the Precision Equipment Company, the IC stepper and scanner market is
expected to remain firm, and shipments of the ArF immersion scanner NSR-
S620D are anticipated to move into full swing. In the LCD stepper and scanner
market, particularly in Asia, we are forecasting growth in the market relating
to equipment for small to medium-sized LCD panels, a product area in which
Nikon excels. Based on these conditions, we anticipate substantial increases
in net sales and operating income in the Precision Equipment Company in the
fiscal year ending March 2012. In the Imaging Company too, we forecast steady
growth in the digital SLR camera market and the compact digital camera market
is also expected to see continuing sales growth in emerging countries.
Difficulties in component procurement, which had been a cause for concern, are
now being resolved, and we anticipate that we will be able to achieve steady
growth in unit sales of both digital SLR cameras and compact digital cameras.