Sharp Corp is expected to report interim consolidated earnings which will beat its own forecast by a wide margin thanks to particularly strong sales of LCDs for use in personal computers, according to Japanese media reports. According to a company official, group consolidated net profit is now estimated at 11bn yen ($104m) as compared to the company’s initial projections of 7bn yen ($66m). The new figures represent a 280% year-on-year increase. Interim sales were a record 920bn yen ($8.7bn), up 2% year-on-year the official said. Sales of active-matrix LCDs jumped about 70% and flash memory chips also put in a strong performance while revenue from mobile phone and PC sales recovered sharply. The performance was in spite of the strong yen, which averaged 116 to the dollar in the first half of the financial year ended September 30.
