Canon’s second quarterly profit quadruples on global demand for cameras, office equipment

Canon’s quarterly profit jumps on global recovery

TOKYO — Japanese electronics maker Canon’s fiscal second quarter profit more than quadrupled from the previous year on strong demand for office equipment and digital cameras.

Canon Inc. reported Tuesday April-June net profit jumped to 67.64 billion yen ($777.4 million) from 15.61 billion yen a year earlier as quarterly sales surged 22 percent to 970.36 billion yen ($11.15 billion).

Demand was strong for laser printers and inkjet printers amid a global economic recovery, the Tokyo-based company said.

Although the strong yen eroded Canon’s overseas earnings, that damage was more than offset by the popularity of its new offerings in high-end digital cameras such as single-lens reflex cameras.

Cheaper compact digital cameras known as the PowerShot series also did well, with demand for such products booming in emerging markets, Canon said.

Demand was also picking up for office equipment called network digital multifunction devices, which work as a printer, scanner, copier and fax machine in one, it said.

Canon is expecting recovery to continue in the U.S. as well as in emerging markets such as China. It stuck to its projection for a 240 billion yen ($2.76 billion) profit for the year ending Dec. 31, 2010, up 82 percent from the previous year.

For the fiscal first half, Canon posted a 124.45 billion yen ($1.43 billion) profit, a threefold increase from 33.349 billion yen ($383.3 million) the previous year.