Panasonic posts 39% drop in Q1 operating profit, misses estimate (updated)

Panasonic Energy India

28/07/2022 07:48

(Adds details of Q1 financial results)
    TOKYO, July 28 (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Holdings Corp
 6752.T , whose energy unit supplies batteries to Tesla
 TSLA.O , reported a 39% drop in first-quarter profit on
Thursday as demand for its home appliances and car batteries
slowed after a pandemic-fuelled surge last year.
    The operating profit for the three months to June 30 was
63.7 billion yen ($470.77 million), missing an estimated mean of
73.3 billion yen from nine analysts, according to Refinitiv.
    Manufacturers including Panasonic are dealing with a sharp
rise in raw material costs that they have not been able to fully
pass on to consumers, who have tightened their spending in the
face of surging inflation and growing fears of recession.
    Panasonic had performed exceptionally well in the
year-earlier quarter, when operating profit surged by more than
27 times.
    The company in May warned of flat operating profits this
business year, hurt by component shortages due to COVID-19
lockdowns in China and costs that have surged following Russia's
invasion of Ukraine.
    Despite the weaker quarterly result, Panasonic on Thursday
stuck to its full-year operating forecast of 360 billion yen for
the year to March 31.
    Earlier this month, the conglomerate's energy unit Panasonic
Energy Co said it had picked Kansas as the site for a new
battery plant that will primarily supply batteries to Tesla,
adding to a line of investments from Asian EV battery makers in
the United States.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Z800C  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2XH0LE
    The unit is working to supply Tesla with a larger battery
known as the 4680 model, starting with production in Japan in
its next fiscal year.
    By 2029, Panasonic plans to expand battery production
capacity by three to four times, with most of the increase in
North America.
($1 = 135.3100 yen)

 (Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
and Kim Coghill)
 ((Satoshi.Sugiyama@thomsonreuters.com;))