Japanese flat glass manufacturer Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said it plans to substantially increase its micro-lens-business optical fibres over the next 10 years.
The company will spend between 20-30 bil…
Japanese flat glass manufacturer Nippon Sheet Glass Co. said it plans to substantially increase its micro-lens-business optical fibres over the next 10 years. The company will spend between 20-30 billion yen (US$ 187.16 million) on a consolidated basis over the decade to boost production capacity and strengthen R&D efforts related to micro lenses. The lenses are used in dense wave division multiplexer (DWDM) systems capable of dramatically increasing fibre-optic data transmission capacity, and global demand for them is booming. The company, which has virtually monopolized the worldwide micro lens market, plans to increase sales by 500% to 120 billion yen in 10 years. Despite doubling its output capacity, partly by expanding facilities at its Yokkaichi plant in Mie Prefecture, Nippon Sheet Glass has not been able to keep up with the pace of demand. “We plan to maintain our position as the world“s No.1 supplier of micro lenses by rapidly expanding production capacity,” Yozo Izuhara, president of the company, said. Nippon Sheet Glass plans to make its information/electronics division the largest in the company over the next decade, allocating it half of the capital investment budget of 200 billion yen. Group sales are targeted at 500-600 billion yen in 2010, double the current amount. Pretax profit is expected to grow to 50-60 billion yen, with the return on assets and return on equity ratios both reaching 10%.