Japan's Sharp and other "Big Three" performance improvement has a long way to go

The depreciation of the yen, the decline in home appliance revenue, and the “slimming” of the loss-making business contributed to the improvement of the performance of the second quarter of the 2013 fiscal year (September-September) of several Japanese electronics companies such as Panasonic and Sharp. However, their transformation into automotive electronics, new energy and other industries still has a long way to go.

Panasonic lost its profit in the first half of fiscal 2013. From April to September this year, Matsushita's sales revenue was 370.63 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 102%; operating profit was 146.6 billion yen, up 168% year-on-year; net profit reached 169.3 billion yen, a year-on-year loss, compared with a loss of 685.2 billion in the same period last year. JPY.

Sharp’s first half of the fiscal year also significantly reduced losses. From April to September 2013, Sharp's operating income was approximately 134 million yen; operating profit was 33.815 billion yen, and operating profit loss was 168.9 billion yen in the same period last year; net profit loss was 4.33 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 287.58 billion yen in the same period last year.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2013 (September-September), Sony’s revenue increased by 10% year-on-year to 1.7755 trillion yen ($18.1 billion); however, profits fluctuated, operating profit was 14.8 billion yen, down 50% year-on-year, net profit The loss was 19.3 billion yen, and the net loss for the same period last year was 15.5 billion yen. Sony turned a profit in the first quarter, earning a net profit of 3.5 billion yen, which estimated Sony's net loss of 15.8 billion yen in the first half of fiscal 2013.

On September 27 this year, Matsushita has signed an equity transfer contract for Matsushita Health Medical Co., Ltd. From the perspective of specific business, although the revenue of consumer products such as TVs, digital cameras, and mobile phones has decreased, the decline in the yen exchange rate and the profitability of the residential construction business and the automotive industry have driven the company's overall profit growth. Therefore, Panasonic raised its forecast for fiscal year 2013 (from April this year to the end of March next year), and plans to increase its annual sales from 7.2 billion yen to 7.4 billion yen, and pre-tax profit from 140 billion yen to 210 billion yen. .

Sharp said that LCD TV sales in Europe and the Americas were sluggish, sales in Japan, China and emerging countries increased, sales increased compared with the same period last year; revenue from air conditioners and refrigerators increased slightly. However, the revenue of Sharp mobile phones and digital home appliances all declined. Fortunately, the solar cell business sales revenue increased by 80% compared with the same period of last year; the LCD panel business turned around, and the revenue increased by 46% year-on-year due to the strengthening of small and medium-sized LCD panels and the improvement of sales of large LCD panels.

Sony's revenue growth was mainly due to the impact of exchange rate positives, coupled with smartphone sales growth. The net profit fluctuated downwards because the color TV business still suffered losses, and the operating profit of the film and television business dropped significantly.

Chen Yan, executive director of the Japan Enterprise (China) Research Institute, said that since the beginning of this year, the yen has depreciated by 20% to 30%, which has reduced the cost of Japanese companies by 20% to 30%, giving several major electronics companies a chance to breathe. The decline in the proportion of household appliances revenue is another important reason for the improvement of Japanese companies' performance. For example, Hitachi and Toshiba’s household appliances revenues have fallen below 10%, and Matsushita’s household appliances revenue has also fallen to about 30%. At the same time, Japanese companies "cut the blood", cut some loss-making business, such as Sony sold the LCD panel business, Sharp also transferred half of the capacity of the 10th generation line.

Chen Yan believes that the reason why Panasonic's performance has recovered better is because it is actively transforming into the automotive electronics industry. At present, Panasonic Automotive Electronics has a revenue of approximately 100 billion yen a year. “The automotive industry is also undergoing transformation. Now the electronics can account for 30% of the total vehicle cost, and Panasonic has strengths in hybrid and navigation.”

Sony has acquired Olympus and hopes to make breakthroughs in the medical electronics field, but it will be difficult to quickly become a growth point. Chen Yan believes that Sony continues to strive to introduce more good products on LCD TVs and cameras. Since it is not a disruptive innovation, TVs must compete with Korean and Chinese companies. Cameras must compete with Canon and Nikon to achieve good profitability. Big.

In Chen Yan's view, Sharp wants to transform into new energy, but the price of solar cells will fluctuate, and it is not easy to become a profitable product. Although Sharp has developed a lot of new TVs, there are no revolutionary changes, and it is difficult to have high profitability.

However, Lu Yibo, deputy secretary-general of China's e-commerce, believes that Panasonic will dare to cut off losses, such as the plasma panel and TV business, but from the perspective of home appliances, Sony and Sharp may be more competitive in the long run.

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