Business News

FUJIFILM to construct new production line

Tuesday 03. June 2008 - FUJIFILM investing 96 million Euros in Dutch production base

Responding to growing global demand and the need for environmentally-friendly printing products, FUJIFILM Corporation has decided to enhance its production capacity for CTP plates. The company will invest approximately 96 million Euros in its European manufacturing operation, FUJIFILM Manufacturing Europe B.V. (Netherlands), to construct a new CTP plates production line. Construction will begin in October 2008 and operations are planned to begin in January 2010. The European plate manufacturing operation is one of five global bases*1 for the production of offset printing plates.

With the digitization of the printing process, the demand for computer-to-plate (CTP) systems – which allow digital text and image data to be transferred directly to printing plates, eliminating the film processing stage – is rising rapidly. Recently, the demand for CTP plates has increased further in the emerging countries due to their extraordinary economic growth, and this trend is expected to continue. Meanwhile, due to the heightened environmental awareness in Japan, US and Europe, there is a strong demand for environmentally friendly products such as processless CTP plates (which generate no waste liquid due to the elimination of the film development process), and chemistry free CTP plates (that reduce waste liquid due to simplified development processes).

The new production line will feature FUJIFILM´s unique surface treatment technology, called MultiGrain Technology*2. This enables the stable production of high quality, high definition CTP plates with excellent durability and consistency. It will also allow FUJIFILM to manufacture processless and chemistry-free CTP plates, which require advanced production technologies.

Looking towards the future, this investment will allow FUJIFILM not only to meet the growing demand for CTP plates, but will also contribute to reducing environmental impacts by expanding the local production of such environmentally friendly products. Furthermore, FUJIFILM will also expand its supply to the high growth markets in regions such as the Middle East as well as to Europe in order to further increase its market share in the CTP plates market.





FUJIFILM has long been a leading company in the manufacture of equipment and materials for printing. This investment is set to continue with the worldwide development, manufacture and sales of a broad spectrum of products, including graphic arts film, PS and CTP plates, software and platesetters for prepress. FUJIFILM plans to continue to expand and develop its graphic systems business, which is one of its major business areas, and to contribute further to the development of the global printing industry.

*1 Japan, US, Netherlands, China (2) *2 Technology of placing 4 layers of multiple grains (fine texture) on the surface of the CTP plate aluminum base.

1. Location: FUJIFILM Manufacturing Europe B.V. (Industrieterrein Vosseenberg, Oudenstaart 1, 5047 TK Tilburg The Netherlands) 2. Investment: 96 million Euro 3. Manufactured product: Offset printing plate material ´´CTP plate´´ 4. Total floor area: approx. 19,000? 5. Start of construction: October 2008 6. Start of operation: January 2010