Like many of its rivals, Panasonic delayed its profit forecast due to lack of clarity about the effects of the quake.

Market consensus was for a profit of 262.6 billion yen, based on the average of 21 estimates by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The maker of Viera televisions and Lumix cameras posted a 305 billion yen profit last year, and said in April it would have raised that to 310 billion yen in the current year, if it were not for the effects of the March disaster, which damaged factories and crimped domestic demand.

Demand for car navigation systems and automobile electronics parts have been sluggish due to depressed domestic auto production, the Nikkei business daily said earlier.

Panasonic is the world’s fourth-largest maker of flat-screen televisions by revenue after Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Sony, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

But domestic television sales are set to slump this year after a government incentive scheme and the switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting frontloaded demand last year.

“Like rivals Sony and Sharp, they have structural disadvantages,” said Makoto Kikuchi, CEO of Myojo Asset management.

“The low end is now all about price competition, and Chinese and South Korean makers have an advantage there. In the high end, for example 3D televisions, there were expectations, but things haven’t progressed as hoped,” he added.

Panasonic also said in April it planned to shed another 17,000 jobs and might close up to 70 factories around the world over the next two years, as it seeks to pare costs and rid itself of overlapping businesses following its buyouts of Sanyo Electric and Panasonic Electric Works.

The takeovers were aimed at refocusing the business on environmentally friendly products like rechargeable batteries and solar panels, in which Sanyo has technological advantages.

“There is potential, but at this point it is nothing more than potential,” said Kikuchi of the new direction.

“We can’t yet see how, when and how much it is going to contribute to profits.”

Company President Fumio Ohtsubo said in May the effects of the quake were proving shallower, but longer-lasting than the firm had initially expected, and that there were uncertainties about electricity supply in the peak summer season.