TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Panasonic Corp reported a 19 percent drop in third-quarter operating profit and cut its full-year earnings outlook, citing slower demand for home appliances and factory automation equipment in China amid an escalating Sino-U.S. trade war.
The electronics company posted on Monday an operating profit of 97.6 billion yen ($889.05 million) for the October-December quarter, down from 120.1 billion yen a year ago. That was far below the average 122.35 billion yen estimate of eight analysts, according to Refinitiv data.
Panasonic cut its operating profit forecast for the year ending March to 385 billion yen from 425 billion yen. The outlook compared with the 420.25 billion yen average of 18 analyst estimates, according to Refinitiv data.
A bright spot in the otherwise bleak earnings is that Panasonic's energy division, which includes the battery business with U.S. electric car maker Tesla Inc, posted an operating profit of 16.5 billion yen, its first profit in three quarters.
Panasonic, the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla's current production models, saw its profits squeezed early last year by the U.S. EV maker's initial production delays for the mass-market Model 3 sedan.
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While Tesla's chief executive Elon Musk has said he sees higher demand for the Model 3, analysts are now concerned demand in the United States for both the mid-range and long-range versions has largely been exhausted.
Tesla expressed optimism last month that it would post profits in every quarter in 2019, but the winding down of a U.S. tax subsidy this year will make all Tesla cars more expensive and could hurt sales.
($1 = 109.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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