Fuji Xerox expand operations in Vietnam

Japanese-based Fuji Xerox, a subsidiary of FujiFilm Holdings of Japan (75 per cent) and Xerox Corporation of the US (25 per cent), today officially announced the opening of its new manufacturing company - Fuji Xerox Haiphong Co., Ltd. - in the northern portcity of Haiphong.

Located in the Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park with an investment fund of approximately nine billion yen ($120 million), the 57,563 square metre facility marks a major milestone for the company in Vietnam and will serve as a key manufacturing hub globally.

Speaking at the grand opening ceremony in Haiphong, Tadahito Yamamoto, chairman of Fuji Xerox, said that together with two companies in China and Japan the manufacturing hub in Haiphong would become one of three main poles of the group to provide products in the worldwide.

"It is expected that the manufacturing capacity in Vietnam and China will be the same in the future," said Yamamoto.

With the establishment of the new site, Fuji Xerox is aiming to increase manufacturing capacity, while avoiding overconcentration at its other existing manufacturing sites in China, where approximately 90 per cent of its products such as digital colour multifunction devices and small-sized LED printers are manufactured at its two manufacturing sites to meet the needs of the Asia-Pacific, European, the US and emerging markets in which further market growth is expected in the future.

Fuji Xerox Haiphong plans to meet its full manufacturing capacity by the end of fiscal 2015. With a manufacturing capacity of around two million units per year, making up 0.5 per cent of the total capacity of 44 million of the group worldwide, the manufacturing facility will respond to increasing worldwide needs with the manufacturing and shipping of the latest products including digital colour multifunction devices and small-sized light-emitting diode (LED) printers.

Fuji Xerox chose Vietnam as the location of its new manufacturing site because the country has been making steady progress toward industrialisation. The country already has information equipment manufacturers, as well as an extensive land transportation network connecting the country with China, Thailand and other Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which will facilitate Fuji Xerox in establishing supply chains.

Moreover, Haiphong is the third largest city in Vietnam and the biggest port in northern Vietnam. Further growth is expected for the city as urban development projects are currently under way to transform the area into an industrial district.

The firm will employ 500 employees at the start of operations, a number which is expected to increase up to 3,000 by 2015.