Panasonic falls to a £1.6bn.loss as demand dries up

JAPANESE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS GIANT Panasonic announced a revenue decline of 14 per cent in its fiscal 2012 third quarter, blaming the economic situation and the flooding in Thailand.

Panasonic's third quarter financial figures made for painful reading, with the firm announcing revenue of £16.2bn, a 14 per cent decline from the same quarter a year previously. That led to Panasonic suffering an operating loss of £1.6bn.

Panasonic joined other electronics firms by blaming its recent woes on the devastating floods in Thailand. Once again weaker than expected demand for flat-panel televisions was cited, though the firm said that its PC business held up well.

Panasonic is not expecting things to get better soon, with the firm announcing a downward revision of its revenue estimate for its full year 2012 to eight trillion Yen, blaming "significant sales declines in mainly digital products". With production starting to resume in Thailand it couldn't lay all of the blame on its fragile supply chain, instead blaming the European economic crisis.

The news of Panasonic's downward revision of forecasts was greeted in such a negative manner that the company was forced to quickly release a statement in which it clarified that its eight trillion Yen figure was simply a forecast and not an official announcement. Panasonic, like Sony, is seen as a symbol of wider market trends in Japan, and with both companies posting what can only be described as poor financial results and gloomy forecasts, the future doesn't look particularly good for the Japanese consumer electronics industry. µ