Sony delays forecasts to assess quake fallout

Tokyo / Bloomberg

Sony Corp. will postpone its forecasts for the current fiscal year while it assesses the damage from an earthquake that shut its main plant for camera sensors.
The Japanese company said it won’t provide its usual financial outlook when it reports earnings on April 28 and will instead announce guidance in May. On Thursday, the company reported a preliminary profit for the last fiscal year that was more than 9 percent below its own forecast, in part because of slowing global demand for smartphones and the components that Sony supplies.
Operations at its Kumamoto facility remained suspended and there’s been damage to the building, clean rooms and equipment, Sony said in a statement. The facility is the primary manufacturing site for image sensors used in digital and security cameras as well as micro-display devices.
“There is some damage to upper floors, so we’re considering ways to carry out reinforcements,” said Haruka Kitagawa, a spokesman for Sony. “Some production lines on the upper floors are askew. We’re checking whether we can use them or not.”
The earthquake damage may have an adverse impact on operating results, particularly in its devices and imaging products group, according to the statement. It’s unclear when operations will resume. A month’s suspension could reduce Sony’s sales by $453mn, said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo.
“Sony can increase the production of CMOS in other factories but it’s not enough,” he said. “The impact on the supply chain is also big. It’s possible that this problem will affect the production of high-end smartphones such as the iPhone.”