Earlier this week, Konica Minolta announced it would be ending production at Konica Minolta Business Technologies (WUXI) in China. Production at the plant is slated to conclude during the first half of calendar year 2025. The closure will result in a loss of approximately $41 million (six billion yen).
WUXI production will be shifted to Konica Minolta’s facilities in Malaysia, Japan, and Dongguan, China. It will continue to ensure a stable supply of the products while accelerating optimization of its production system and further strengthening the profitability in the business technologies business.
Under its medium-term business plan, Konica Minolta has been driving its manufacturing strategy in the business technologies business, including the digital workplace and professional print units, to strengthen profitability and build a supply system that can respond quickly to environmental changes. After examining the production system in the Asian region from the viewpoint of stable supply and production efficiency, the decision was made to cease operations at WUXI.
Konica Minolta began manufacturing in Dongguan, China, in 1994, and established Konica Minolta WUXI in 2004 amid market growth. Following the technology transfer from Japan, the two bases in China have played a central role in the global production of business technologies products.
In order to avoid the risk of production concentration in a single country, Konica Minolta established a manufacturing subsidiary in Malaysia in 2014 and expanded production, transferring partial production of professional print machines to Japan in 2022. Along with these and other initiatives, Konica Minolta has worked on building a global supply network with multiple sources and routes.
