FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Shigehiro Nakajima) will construct a new factory that will handle the processing and assembling of optical lenses in the Philippines, in order to enhance the production capacity of high-performance lenses used for digital cameras, projectors and CCTV (surveillance) cameras. The construction of the new factory will start in October 2012, and the commencement of operation is scheduled for June 2013.

Fujifilm's optical device business field handles digital camera lenses, camera modules for mobile phones, TV camera lenses, CCTV (surveillance) camera lenses, and projector lenses. Placing this business field as one of the priority business fields, Fujifilm has been accelerating business operations for this field.

As optical lenses are used in a wide range of products from consumer to commercial use, worldwide growth is expected in this area. The demand for lenses with excellent optical performance is currently growing and is expected to keep up this trend, due to the development of digital cameras, surveillance cameras and projectors with higher performance, and to the increase in its diffusion rate in emerging countries with significant economic growth. Amid such circumstances, Fujifilm has decided to establish a new factory in the Philippines, where electricity and other infrastructures are built and it is rich in young human resources, so as to enhance the production capacity of optical lenses.

The new factory will offer an integrated production process from the polishing, coating and other processing procedures to the assembling of optical lenses. New production equipment, such as the "lens polishing machine" which polishes the surface of glass lenses with high precision at nano levels, and the "vacuum evaporation machine" which forms multilayer thin films for antireflection will be introduced for the production of high-performance lenses of digital cameras, projectors and CCTV (surveillance) cameras. By enhancing the production capacity step by step from the commencement of operation in June 2013, Fujifilm intends to increase the production to 18 million lenses a year by FY 2015, so as to respond to the growing demand for optical lenses. The total investment for the new factory will be 2.3 billion yen.

Fujifilm has responded to the wide range of diversifying needs of customers by offering Fujinon brand products that have been developed with Fujifilm's proprietary development and design capacity, as well as high-level manufacturing technologies and quality control. As a leading company in the optical device field, Fujifilm will contribute to the further expansion of this field with its development and sales of products to match market needs.