Sony Corp yesterday cut its sales forecast for the current fiscal year, citing the impact of a surging yen and slower smartphone sales, as net profit also took a hit.
The company lowered its revenue forecast for the year ending March next year by 5.1 percent to ¥7.4 trillion (US$71 billion), but kept its projection of an ¥80 billion net profit unchanged.
Sony’s net profit in the April-June quarter was down about 74 percent from a year ago, partly owing to a one-time gain a year earlier. The lowered figure still beat analysts’ expectations of a loss.
Sony previously warned that a pair of deadly earthquakes in Japan in April would dent its financial results.
The quakes, which caused major damage on southern Kyushu Island and claimed dozens of lives, forced major firms, including Sony and Toyota Motor Corp, to temporarily shutter factories, hitting production and sales.
Costs also included repairing damaged buildings.
In other news, Japan’s top three steelmakers swung to a loss in the April-June quarter due to a fall in steel prices, and warned of deteriorating conditions for the year ahead as the yen’s rapid appreciation hits earnings.
JFE Holdings Inc posted a quarterly loss of ¥11.7 billion, compared with a net income of ¥17.3 billion a year earlier, according to a statement yesterday.
Japan’s No. 2 steel company scrapped its interim dividend as revenue slipped 14 percent, and warned it would make a loss in the first half.
Third-biggest mill Kobe Steel Ltd yesterday posted a net loss of ¥2.1 billion, after earning ¥11.9 billion a year ago.
Revenue fell 12 percent and the company halved its full-year forecast to ¥10 billion.
Japan’s top steelmaker, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, on Thursday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss and warned full-year profit would decline by about a third.
The yen, which has strengthened more than 14 percent this year, is an additional burden on Japanese mills, which draw a third or more of their revenues from overseas and must compete with a flood of exports from China.
“The impact of declines in product prices is big due to oversupply in Asia,” JFE executive vice president Shinichi Okada told a briefing in Tokyo. “Despite our efforts to improve earnings, results deteriorated on oversupply, differences in inventory valuation, and as the yen appreciated rapidly.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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