With expectations of increasing global demand for laser printers, Canon Inc. plans to manufacture more printers in China from the third quarter of this year.

Canon, one of the leaders in the global laser printer market, is already manufacturing printers at one subsidiary in China, and now plans to begin production at Canon Dalian Business Machines Inc. as production at Canon Zhuhai Inc. is at capacity. The latter factory began production in 1990 and has a capacity of 50,000 printers per month. The company hopes to respond to an expected increase in demand of 10 percent annually for such printers.

Along with the continuation of printer toner and toner container manufacturing, the Dalian factory will start producing 40,000 printers per month and plans to double its output within two years. Those printers will be exported to Japan, the U.S. and Europe, according to Richard Berger[cq], a spokesman for Canon.

The company will invest 2 billion yen (US$16.1 million) on the new facilities and plans to hire around 200 workers this year, said Berger.