This Week in Imaging: Rocky Earnings Season, Plus Ninestar Update

by Kathleen Wirth · November 3, 2023

It’s earnings season, and this week we’ve seen results from several printer and copier companies. It’s important to note of course that many of these companies are very diversified, and in several instances – such as with Konica Minolta – it’s a non-print business (a healthcare unit) – that’s dragging down results, while office hardware and solutions are doing well. It seems to be a similar case over at Kyocera. However, at Epson, printer sales are down. This may be due to the fact that Epson enjoyed strong sales over the pandemic due to the work-at-home trend. Now that that demand is satisfied, however, sales are lower versus recent previous years.

What seems to be a common factor for most companies are high interest rates around the world, and a slowing economy in China, which seems to be resulting in lower profits. For Ninestar of course, the company is also feeling the effects of a ban of its products into the U.S. after being placed on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List in June 2023.

Ninestar Update

Speaking of Ninestar, late last month, it was a win for the U.S. government in court. Previously, Ninestar has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of International Trade seeking to overthrow that ban.

In its litigation, Ninestar’s attorneys have demanded to see the U.S. government’s actual evidence that Ninestar used the prohibited Uyghur forced labor. The problem with that of course is that by revealing such evidence could expose how such evidence is collected and companies could then use this information to disguise or circumvent evidence that they’re using forced labor.

The court however ruled in favor of the U.S. government, which doesn’t have to reveal its evidence. While it’s been speculated that the U.S. uses product barcodes to identify products made with force labor, in this case, it appears that the U.S. government has actual witnesses to Ninestar’s use of forced labor, and whose safety could be compromised. The court explained: “The fully unredacted version of the administrative record in this matter contains certain privileged information of such a high level of sensitivity that, if disseminated, could pose a danger of physical harm to certain persons.”

This Week in Imaging

Financial News

Some Improvement for Konica Minolta’s First Half, But Declines for Second Quarter

Challenging Second Quarter and First Half for Kyocera

Ninestar Reports Revenue and Profit Decline for Third Quarter

Epson Cites High Inflation for Another Challenging Quarter, Lowers Forecast

Office and Home Printers and MFPs

Fujifilm Business Innovation Launches Next-Gen Color A3 MFP

New Unique Brother ‘5-in-1’ Color Inkjet All-in-One with Automatic Paper Cutter

Production and Commercial Printing

Konica Minolta Launches Next-Generation AccurioPress 7136 Series

3D Printing