Komori’s business in Japan has been held up by a tourist-led economic recovery which has kept orders close to the levels reached in the first six months of its 2025 financial year.
At that time incoming orders reached ¥20,100 million, slipping to ¥19,600 million for the first six months of this year. The story across the rest of the world was not so serendipitous, in the main because of US tariffs having a negative effect on any propensity to invest.
Overall this meant a drop in orders of 41% in North America, 46% in China and 14% in Europe. Overall the company’s orders in the first six months of the year dropped by 32% to ¥500 million (¥73,400 million).
The sales story is better as the first six months of the year continued to enjoy the tail end of Drupa business. This meant that sales at the interim level reached ¥52,200 million (¥50,100 million). It reported an operating profit of ¥3,200 million (¥1,300 million).
Orders for sheetfed presses demonstrated the Drupa and tariff effect with a 30% fall to ¥26,000 million (¥36,900 million). The web and security press business showed a steeper fall, from ¥17,00 million (¥6,100 million), largely as a result of a huge security press order booked in the first quarter of last year. It has won a two press order for passports and similar security documents from Malaysia, but these are highly specified Lithrone SX29 B2 presses rather than intaglio machines.
Its service side grew slightly in the first half to ¥11,000 million (¥10,700 million) with digital print and printed electronics slipping to ¥7,000 million (¥8,500 million). There are no comments regarding the change of ownership for Landa Digital Printing, but in another release Komori says it is making good progress in being able to lay down ultra thin coatings for production of solar panels based on perovskite technology.
Japanese printers are also buying machines to boost their energy efficiency as well as increasing productivity the company says. Orders in North America are sharply down because the cost of living and tariffs had “discouraged businesses from undertaking capital expenditure”. However it has been ,successful in increasing sales in Canada.
Komori has teamed up with a Chinese MIS and technology provider to boost, with some success, the take up of KP-Connect and its smart factory concept. This could not compensate for a reluctance of mid sized commercial printers to invest as US tariffs restrict the ability of Chinese companies to invest. The same effect, though to a lesser degree has been felt in Europe where the Drupa has continued to help with sales.
