The Japanese firm will supply printers to Legend on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis, and the Chinese firm will sell them in China, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper said, without citing sources.

Konica Minolta will provide a monochrome and a color model, both of which will be made in Guangdong Province, the Nihon Keizai said.

Some 80,000 monochrome and 10,000 color printers will be shipped in the next year and a half to two years, the newspaper said.

These low-priced models are usually sold to household users in Japan, the United States and Europe, but the Japanese firm expect demand in China to grow among corporate and government users, the newspaper said.

China's laser printer market is estimated at slightly less than one million units a year, with monochrome models accounting for the majority, the Nihon Keizai said.

Legend commands a roughly 15 percent share of the Chinese laser printer market, trailing market leader Hewlett-Packard Co., which boasts a 60 percent share, it said.

The tie-up with Konica Minolta is expected to help the Chinese firm narrow the gap with the US company, the Nihon Keizai said.

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