"For the year to March 2005, we are going to boost our digital camera output capacity by 67 percent to 20 million units from the 12 million units we plan to produce during this fiscal year to March 2004," said a company spokesman.

The news helped boost Sanyo's shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday.

Sanyo gained 26 yen or 5.05 percent to close at 541 yen while the Nikkei-225 index rose 3.16 percent to 10,490.77, a five-week high.

Reports over the weekend said Sanyo would boost output at its factories in the western Japanese city of Osaka, Dongguan in southern China and Bogor in Indonesia.

The Sanyo spokesman declined to confirm the cost of the upgrades reported to be below one billion yen (9.3 million dollars).

Sanyo is the world's largest producer of digital cameras, supplying more than 90 percent of its output to other camera makers on an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) basis, according to press reports.

SPACE.WIRE