OSAKA (Kyodo) Kyocera Corp. is planning to implement a capital investment program worth 100 billion yen in fiscal 2005, an increase of 60 percent from fiscal 2004, according to Kyocera President Makoto Kawamura.
"We are pushing a plan to build a factory for liquid crystal-related products in Kagoshima Prefecture" and other parts-making facilities elsewhere, Kawamura said in an interview.
Kawamura, who took the helm of the ceramics manufacturer in June, said his challenge for the time being is to strengthen the profitability of the company.
Kyocera has a stated business goal of posting 2 trillion yen in group business in the near future.
Kyocera suffered its first net profit fall in three years in fiscal 2004, partly as a result of its withdrawal from a majority of camera operations, including the production and sale of digital cameras.
Kyocera's group sales for fiscal 2004 grew 3.5 percent to 1.18 trillion yen.
"We are now reviewing money-losing businesses and development costs without any exception of sectors," Kawamura said.
Kyocera has established a research and development base in India for the development of new mobile phone handsets as a means of reducing costs, he said, citing relatively low operational costs in the country.
"I believe we will be able to introduce a new product (developed at the Indian unit) sometime around Christmas," he added.
As for bolstering domestic operations, Kawamura wants to create a system that will realize synergy effects within the group's existing businesses -- from production to development and sales.
"I would like to create a system where a leader of an operation will supervise related operations in the group, including subsidiaries," he said.
