Nikon to make DSLRs at £5m Laos plant to cut costs

The move is designed to ‘reinforce’ DSLR production and ‘reduce costs’, said Nikon Corporation president Makoto Kimura.

Nikon currently makes its entry and mid-range DSLRs in Thailand.

‘With the establishment of this new factory in Laos, a part of the production for digital SLR cameras, which are completed as final products at Nikon (Thailand), will be done in Laos,’ reads a statement released by Nikon’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

The plant will cost 60 billion Laos kip, equivalent to around £5 million, and is due to open in October.

Last month, Nikon said it expects to sell 100,000 fewer interchangeable-lens cameras than previously forecast, and admitted it has been hit by competition-fuelled price drops that began in November 2012.

Nikon also slashed its lens sales forecast – by 200,000.

Last week, Nikkei.com reported that the company plans to cut its camera ‘inventory’ by 20%, partly by speeding up production.

At the time of writing, Nikon had yet to respond to a request for comment on the Nikkei article.

In a profile published by BBC News, Laos – a communist state – is described as one of east Asia’s poorest countries, which has ‘struggled to find its position within the changing political and economic landscape’, and with a human rights record that has ‘come under scrutiny’.