Panasonic cuts full-year profit forecast on weaker outlook for auto battery business

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's Panasonic Holdings cut its full-year operating profit forecast by 13.5% on Thursday, mainly due to an expected decrease in profit at its key energy unit, which supplies batteries to Tesla and other automakers. Panasonic now expects group operating profit of 320 billion yen ($2.12 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2026, down from 370 billion yen expected previously. The forecast was revised down to reflect the impact from U.S. tariffs, lower-than-anticipated sales volumes and less windfall from U.S. federal tax credits for the automotive battery business, as well as bigger-than-expected restructuring expenses. South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution also lowered its earnings guidance earlier on Thursday, forecasting a mid-single-digit percentage decline in 2025 sales due to the end of U.S. tax credits on EV purchases. It had previously expected sales to grow between 5% and 10%. Panasonic saw its operating profit for the energy unit almost completely wiped out in the second quarter through end-September, reporting an operating profit of 1.2 billion yen, a 96.4% decline from the same period last year. The company downscaled its automotive battery sales projection for North America by 13% to 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the fiscal 2025/26, mainly due to the deterioration of EV market conditions in the United States. It said the energy unit was likely to benefit from expected higher sales of energy storage systems for data centres this fiscal year. ($1=150.7800 yen) (Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)

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