Matsushita Sees Parts Shortage Eroding Sales for Q2 (Update2)
By Minoru Matsutani
Tokyo, Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's largest consumer electronics maker, said it lost as much as 30 billion yen ($275 million) in sales in the last quarter and faces similar losses through September because of a parts shortage.
The Osaka-based company is especially short of systems chips -- which combine memory and processing functions on a single piece of silicon -- used in digital camcorders, DVD players and mobile phones, said Matsushita spokesman Ryuuichi Tsuruta.
Lost sales in the three months ending Sept. 30 will be a little less than the previous quarter as the shortage starts to ease, he said. Tsuruta quoted Matsushita Director Tetsuya Kawakami as saying the company lost 20 billion to 30 billion yen in sales in the first quarter.
``Demand is just too strong,'' said Toshiya Tsuchikawa, an analyst at Shinko Securities Co., who rates the shares ``buy.'' ``Chipmakers started increasing production capacity this year, but there will be a time lag'' until production volume catches up, he said.
Matsushita makes half of the system chips it uses in electronic products, Tsuruta said. The rest is procured from most other Japanese chipmakers such as NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Sony Corp. and others.
Common Problems
Sony, the world's second-largest electronic appliance maker, has also lost potential sales of DVD players, digital camcorders and other appliances because of parts shortages, Sony spokeswoman Akiko Shimazu said, without quantifying the loss.
Pioneer Corp., the first company to introduce DVD players four years ago, said it's also experiencing sales loss because it can't procure system chips and other components for DVD players and other electronic products, spokesman Akira Hiroe said. The Tokyo-based company didn't say how much the loss is.
Other components ranging from electronic capacitors and liquid crystal displays to flash-memory chips are also in short supply. That's causing Palm Inc., the world's biggest handheld computer maker, and Nintendo Co., the world's second-biggest video- game maker, to be unable to make enough products to meet the demand.
However, Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, earlier this month said the supply of flash-memory chips and other parts for optical-networking gear will improve in the three months ending Oct. 31.
Digital Television
The shortages could set back Matsushita's plans to begin sales of digital televisions, which promise sharper images, interactive programs and Internet access, on Sept. 1. The new TV sets are meant to start selling prior to the start of Japan's second digital satellite broadcasting service in December.
``There is concern that the parts shortage may delay sales of digital TVs, or force Matsushita to ship fewer units than planned,'' said Shinko Securities' Tsuchikawa.
Still, delayed shipments of digital TVs won't significantly affect Matsushita's earnings because consumers are probably waiting for TVs built to a common digital standard, which Matsushita, Sony and Toshiba will start selling next year, Tsuchikawa said.
Matsushita shares rose as much as 15 yen to 2,995, the highest intraday price since April 11, before falling 10 yen, or 0.3 percent, to 2,970 |
