Sony Sees No Significant Coronavirus Impact on CIS Sales

Sony reports its March 31-ended fiscal year results and updates on coronavirus impact:

• Now I will discuss the impact of the coronavirus on the I&SS segment.
• As of today, there has been no major impact from the coronavirus on our manufacturing facilities in Japan, which are operating as usual.
• Moreover, we understand that the factory operations and supply chains of our major mobile customers have been recovering.
• On the other hand, we believe that the decrease in shipments of our image sensors was relatively minor compared to the impact the coronavirus had on the manufacturing and sales of our mobile customers in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2020, so there is a possibility that inventory in the supply chain of those customers has increased.
• In addition, we are monitoring how much the final outlet for our products, the smartphone market, may decelerate going forward.

Talking about the near future expectations, Sony states:

• Now I would like to discuss the current state of our I&SS business.
• Considering the deceleration of the smartphone market due to the impact of the coronavirus, there is a possibility that image sensor sales this fiscal year will be flat year-on-year.
• At this point in time, there is no change to our view that image sensors will drive improvements in the functionality of cameras, which are a major differentiating factor for smartphones, or our view as to the expansion of demand over the mid- to longterm. Thus, we have already decided to invest more than 80% of the cumulative capital expenditure we planned to make over the three years of our mid-range plan.
• However, given the uncertain operating environment, we will postpone as long as possible decisions regarding the remaining capital expenditures so we can make appropriate and timely decisions after gathering more market information.
• In addition, we will be disciplined in our prioritization of research and development spending, but we plan to maintain the current level of spending as we manage Sony for the mid- to long-term.