Nikon Corp. announced that sales dropped by 26% year-on-year to 177.4 billion Yen (US$1.739 billion) for the first quarter of 2014, ending on June 30. Operating profit plunged by 42% to 3.5 billion Yen (US$34.3 million), while net profit shrank by 17% to 3.6 billion Yen (US$35.3 million). The company attributed the poor performance to sluggish sales of digital cameras and steppers for both, semiconductor chip and LCD panel manufacturing.
In the Imaging Business Unit, sales fell by 28.2% to 134.7 billion Yen and operating profit dropped by 18.4% to 11.8 billion Yen. The company sold 1.1 million units of interchangeable lens cameras (down by 30.6%), 1.16 million interchangeable lenses (down by 28.1% and 1.78 million compact cameras (down by 42.9%). Sales in the Precision Equipment Business dropped by 31% to 23.5 billion Yen, posting an operational loss of 2.5 billion Yen. The Instrument Business sales rose by 8.4% to 12.4 billion Yen with an operational loss of 1.7 billion Yen.
