Sony Group plans to buy more land near its image sensor factory in Kumamoto Prefecture, aiming to expand its market share in the growing business of powering camera smartphones.
The Tokyo-based company, which supplies devices including Apple’s iPhones, said Thursday it’s in talks to acquire 27 hectares of land for expansion in the city of Koshi in Kumamoto Prefecture, to the northwest of Sony’s existing factory. It could invest several hundred billion yen on a second factory at the new site, local newspaper Kumamoto Nichinichi reported.
The company now expects its share of the global image-sensor market to hit 60% by the business year starting April 2025, Terushi Shimizu, the head of Sony’s chip business, said at an investors relations event. It currently commands a little over half the market’s revenues.
That’s despite a "tougher market environment” this fiscal year for image sensors, Shimizu said. The bulk of Sony’s sensors are used in smartphones, which have suffered double-digit declines particularly in China — the world’s biggest mobile market.
"While we are keeping future uncertainties in mind, we are preparing for the long term, to ensure we can capture growth opportunities when the market recovers in the future,” Shimizu said.
Sony is also chasing growing demand for automotive image sensors, the ability of which to capture images for analysis is essential for self-driving cars. The company expects revenue for car sensors to double in the year to March, and aims for profitability in one to two years, Shimizu said.