Panasonic makes $667M profit despite slipping sales
updated 06:28 am EST, Fri February 1, 2013
Manufacturer turns around from $7.5B loss in previous quarter
Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic made a profit of 61.4 billion yen ($667 million) in the last quarter of 2012, according to recently released results. The profit comes after a turbulent year for the company, with a combination of a weak yen and various cost cutting measures helping to offset the continued slide of its product sales figures.
In the period from July to September 2012, Panasonic had made a loss of 698 billion yen ($7.5 billion), making the latest quarterly figures seem to be a vast improvement. For the same end-of-year period in 2011, the company had made a loss of 197.6 billion yen ($2.1 billion), according to the Associated Press.
Though the profit is significantly better than the loss for the previous quarter and that of the previous year, sales of the company's products continues to drop. Sales for the quarter hit 1.8 trillion yen ($19.6 billion), which is 8-percent lower than the third quarter of the year. Overseas sales, making up 884.3 billion yen ($9.6 billion) of the total, dropped just three percent, while the remaining domestic sales, making up just over half, dropped 12 percent. An overall lower demand for electronics is blamed for the reduced sales
Operating profit improved to 34.6 billion yen ($375 million) for the quarter, compared to the 8.1 billion yen ($88 million) loss last year.
