Canon’s profit explodes

Spy cameras and OLEDs doing better than expected

Canon hiked its annual profit forecast for the third time after seeing expanding demand for “business-to-business” products from surveillance cameras to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen production gear.

Canon forecast operating profit to soar by more than half to $ 3 billion for the year through December as capital expenditure by manufacturers grows.

Coupled with a doubling of operating profit in the third quarter, the upbeat outlook – which surpassed analysts’ estimates – suggests Canon’s diversification from a global camera market under attack from increasingly sophisticated smartphones is paying off.

Canon bought CT scanner and ultrasound equipment maker Toshiba Medical Systems from Toshiba and in 2015 it bought Swedish video surveillance firm AXIS for $ 2.8 billion, a move which helped Canon reach the top of the video surveillance market.

Demand for medical devices and network cameras – devices housing a lens, image sensor and processor in one unit – helped Canon’s third quarter operating profit more than double versus a year earlier even as demand for consumer cameras and printers shrank or remained flat.

Canon said it was helped by a weaker yen in the third quarter. Foreign sales accounted for almost four-fifths of Canon’s total revenue in the first nine months of the year, with the United States – its biggest market – accounting for over a quarter.