Domestic digital camera industry faces pressure to survive
7/7/2003 17:53
The growing imports of foreign digital cameras have put great pressure
on domestic digital camera industry to survive, the Youth Post reported
today.
According to statistics, 200,000 foreign cameras were imported to
Shanghai in the first five months of the year, an increase of 15 times from a
year before, with 194,000 digital cameras, 53 times as many as the previous
year.
Digital cameras have accounted for 97 percent of the total camera
imports from January to May this year, soaring by 68 percentage points from a
year before.
A total of 3.93 million domestic cameras were exported via
Shanghai port in the first five months of the year, up 24.3 percent from a year
before, but more than 90 percent of exported goods were Original Equipment
Manufacturing (OEM) products for foreign brands.
Domestic digital camera
manufacturers, lack in key technology, mainly claimed the low-end of domestic
market, with most exported cameras having no more than three million pixels.
However, imported foreign digital cameras have boasted five million, six million
and even more than 10 million pixels, claiming mid and high-end of domestic
market.
More than 90 percent of the top 15 digital camera brands favored by
domestic consumers in the first quarter of the year are foreign brands.
Domestic digital camera producers cannot win the battle unless they own key
technology, said an industry analyst.
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
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