Tokyo - Sharp’s energy business swung to a loss for the year ended on March 31 as sales from projects outside Japan declined.
The operating loss of 3.9 billion yen ($33 million) at the electronics maker’s energy solutions unit compares with a profit of 32.4 billion yen a year earlier. Sharp had projected a loss of 5 billion yen.
Full-year sales at the unit totalled 270.8 billion yen, the Osaka-based company said in a statement on Thursday.
A difference of 54.7 billion yen was recognised between the contracted purchasing price and current market price of polysilicon for solar panels due to worsening profitability at the business and a valuation reserve for inventory purchase commitments was recorded, the company said in a statement.
Sharp has been undertaking a re-organisation of its solar business. In February, it announced it will sell US unit Recurrent Energy LLC to Canadian Solar.
Earlier, Sharp stopped making solar panels at plants in the US and the UK Sharp also pulled out of its Italian solar venture, the company’s last panel-making plant overseas.
Sharp has been developing solar panels since 1959. The company’s energy business was known previously as the solar cells product group.
In the fourth quarter, sales at the unit totalled 74.2 billion yen and it had an operating loss of 2 billion yen.
Bloomberg