By Chris Nicholls
TOKYO: Sharp Japan has posted a drop in net sales for the first quarter of the Japanese financial year, blaming global material price increases and the slowing US and Japanese economies.
The six per cent overall sales drop, down from 796 billion yen in 2007 to 747.8 billion this year, came from both home electronics and whitegoods sales, the company said.
Consumer electronics sales dropped 17.8 per cent over the same period last year, to 335.4 billion yen, down from 408 million.
Meanwhile, whitegoods and health product sales, grouped under the Health and Environmental Equipment banner, fell 10.3 per cent to 57.6 billion yen, down from 64.3 billion last year.
Sharp said while LCD television and panel sales increased, up 33.7 per cent on last year to 159.5 billion yen, sales drops of other electronics devices, such as mobile phones, of 11.1 per cent dragged the overall figure down.
The lower whitegoods figure Sharp attributed to slow air conditioner sales, despite refrigerator growth.
In a sign of how fast Japan is taking to solar cells to power houses, sales in that division rose 38.1 per cent to 42 billion yen. Sharp said overseas sales also “increased significantly”.