Net profit at Ricoh Co. Ltd. grew to 42.3 billion yen (384 million dollars) and pretax profit rose 28.3 percent to 71.4 billion yen with revenue up 3.6 percent to 888.1 billion yen, the company said in a statement.

"Sales of our core businesses, including color and laser copying machines grew and so did our semiconductor sales," Ricoh vice president Tatsuo Hirakawa told a news conference.

For the full year to March 2004, the company said it aimed to achieve a new record net profit of 85 billion yen with pretax profit seen at 144 billion yen. It also expects to achieve record sales of 1.8 trillion yen.

Sales in the second half should be up on the first half as the company planned to introduce new products and continue to implement cost-cutting measures, the vice president said.

Hirakawa downplayed the negative impact from a strong yen on the company's earnings, saying "strong sales and cost-cutting measures would absorb (the impact) of a rising yen."

A strong yen hurts Japanese manufacturers by making their goods less price competitive abroad and reducing their repatriated overseas earnings.

While the company enjoyed steady sales in Japan and abroad, Ricoh hoped to boost sales, particularly in China.

"Our future success really depends on how well we do our business in China," Hirakawa said, adding Ricoh has an 18 percent share of the Chinese market.

SPACE.WIRE