Reuters: Technology News: Panasonic may curb solar panel, lithium battery expansion: sources

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Panasonic may curb solar panel, lithium battery expansion: sources Oct 30th 2012, 04:39 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Yen on the defensive as BOJ policy decision nears Mon, Oct 29 2012 Panasonic may cut mobile unit, post writedown: sources Fri, Oct 26 2012 CORRECTED-Panasonic may cut mobile unit, post writedown -sources Fri, Oct 26 2012 As China tensions simmer, Japan pulls back from "world's factory" Tue, Oct 23 2012 Analysis: Is Sony buying time - or problems? Thu, Oct 4 2012 People visit Panasonic Corp's booth at CEATEC JAPAN 2012 electronics show in Chiba, east of Tokyo, October 2, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao By Reiji Murai TOKYO | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:39am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Electronics conglomerate Panasonic Corp may curtail its expanded production of solar panels and small lithium batteries used in PCs and other devices as part of new round of restructuring, two sources at the company told Reuters. Panasonic recently built a solar panel plant in Malaysia for 45 billion yen ($564 million), upping capacity by one-third to 900 megawatts. Plans to further ramp up production to 1.5 gigawatts may be scaled back, however, because of weak demand, particularly in Europe, the sources said on condition they were not identified. Panasonic's new president, Kazuhiro Tsuga, has promised a new revival plan for the Japanese company by the end of the current business year next March 31. He has said he will weed out loss-making or low-profitability units. The firm's business in small lithium batteries has been hurt by price competition from Korean and Chinese competitors. Falling into the red last year, it was aiming to return to profit this year by shifting production to China, where costs are lower, but may post a loss instead, the sources said. As a result of the squeeze on expanded output of solar panels and batteries, Panasonic's energy unit may struggle to reach a target of raising sales to more than 1 trillion yen, or 10 percent of overall sales, and operating margin to at least 10 percent by March 2016, the sources said. The unit retains 202 billion yen of goodwill following the acquisition of Sanyo in 2010. Analysts estimate that two-thirds of that is related to solar panels and small lithium batteries. Shares of Panasonic, which releases its results on Wednesday for the quarter ended September 30, rose 3 percent in morning trading in Tokyo to 507 yen. ($1 = 79.8150 Japanese yen) (Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Michael Watson) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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