Sharp Corp. said Friday its group net profit in the April-September period fell 17.8% from a year earlier to ¥22.52 billion ($217 million) as sales of office printers and other products continued to be hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.
Consolidated operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2020 dropped 25.3% to ¥27.60 billion on sales of ¥1.14 trillion, up 1.9%.
Sales of high-profit office printers were sluggish as the pandemic prompted more people to work from home. Weak sales of automotive displays also affected the results, the electronics maker said, adding that it observed strong demand for appliances such as air purifiers.
The fallout from the pandemic pushed its sales down by ¥8.5 billion and profits by ¥2.6 billion, the Osaka Prefecture-based firm said.
It maintained its full-year guidance, expecting net profit to more than double from the previous year to ¥50 billion and operating profit to grow 55.4% to ¥82 billion on sales of ¥2.35 trillion, up 3.5%.
"We continue to expect a steady recovery if economic activity is not restrained (by the pandemic)," Sharp President Katsuaki Nomura said at a press briefing.
But he also said there are signs of a resurgent spread of the virus in Japan and overseas and that the company will closely watch the situation and work toward lowering the risk of supply chain disruptions.