Toshiba Corp, a maker of flat-panel TVs, nuclear reactors and flash memory devices, said yesterday its quarterly profit soared as the global recovery boosted sales, but kept its forecast unchanged in a sign of caution about the strong yen and weak US economy.
The net profit of ¥27.3 billion (US$337.5 million) for July to September was a big turnaround from the minuscule ¥100 million profit eked out a year earlier. Quarterly sales gained 3 percent to ¥1.63 trillion.
Behind the rebound was the global recovery, especially booming demand in China and other emerging Asian economies, the company said.
Toshiba’s performance follows improved results from other Japanese electronics makers including Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp.
However, the Japanese all share the same big uncertainty of the plunging dollar, which erodes the value of their overseas earnings.
The dollar has slid by more than 10 percent against the yen over the past year and is now trading between ¥80 and ¥81.
Toshiba remained upbeat, saying that demand had jumped for home appliances, personal computers and memory for smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone.
Sales in the data storage business also rose because of the acquisition of Japanese rival Fujitsu’s hard-disk drive business, according to Toshiba.
However, the company stuck to its previous forecast from May, citing waning momentum in the global recovery and currency fluctuations as risks.
For the full fiscal year through next March, Toshiba forecast a net profit of ¥70 billion on ¥7 trillion in sales.
For the first six months of the fiscal year, Toshiba returned to profit at ¥27.8 billion from the red ink posted the same period last year.
First half sales edged up 6 percent to ¥3.08 trillion.
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