Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, March 4 (TMTPOST) — Canon China’s board chair and CEO Ozawa Hideki has confirmed that Canon will not pull out its operation from China.

Canon’s Chinese plant in Zhuhai will end operation before July this year, which had led to speculations that Canon will exit from China.

Ozawa, who has over 18 years of work experience in the Chinese market, said that the suspension of the Zhuhai plant does not mean that Canon is shifting its focus on camera products or Canon is pulling out from the Chinese market.

Canon has recently launched its lightweight Cinema EOS camera EOS R5 C in China. The company unveiled EOS R5 two years ago. EOS R5 C supports 8K 60P RAW video recording and is considered an impressive camera from Canon. This also signifies that Canon will continue to focus on SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras and MIL (Mirrorless Interchangeable-lens) cameras.

Canon China’s Zhuhai plant was established in 1990 and primarily manufactures products like lenses, digital cameras, printers and fax machines. The cameras that the Zhuhai plant produces are mostly budget digital cameras that do not allow users to change the lens.

Canon China decided to shut down its Zhuhai plant due to the tough challenges from the increasingly powerful camera systems on smartphones and component shortages in the supply chain caused by the global pandemic.

“All of the employees at the Zhuhai plant have signed an agreement to terminate their labor contract. Now there are less than 100 people at the plant who are responsible for some final work there,” Ozawa said. “It is estimated that the plant will officially shut down before late June. However, this does not mean Canon no longer focus on cameras that do not support lens change or that Canon is pulling out from China.”