According to an online statement, Japanese electrical giant Matsushita Group recorded revenues of 196.6 billion yen in the first half of fiscal year 2017; net sales increased by 38.579 billion yen over the same period, representing a slight increase year on year. It is worth mentioning that sales of automotive plates increased 14% YoY to 1.3430 trillion yen. Earlier this year, Matsushita started producing lithium batteries for Tesla's energy-storage products and electric vehicles at the Super Factory in Nevada, the United States. In addition, Matsushita has also set up a new plant in northern China to produce lithium-ion batteries for automobiles and announced plans for battery production in Himeji, Japan.

The Matsushita Eco-Solutions Division, which produces PV modules as its primary business, saw its unit sales increase by 4% YoY to 757.3 billion yen in the first half of FY 2017 compared to FYR 726.6 billion in the first half of 2016. However, in the same period, the PV power generation system Sales fell across the board In the first half of FY2017, Matsushita Eco-Solutions recorded an operating profit of 21.3 billion yen, a slight decrease from the same period of previous year, mainly due to the increase in costs resulting from the global restructuring of solar energy business.

Matsushita Group continued to focus on developing residential solar energy market, recently bought PanaHome's common stock. PanaHome is working with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on a plan to connect 117 homes in the western part of the country to a small solar power system. This is just one of Panasonic's many residential solar projects.

Outside of Japan, Panasonic recently started producing HIT heterojunction solar cells for Tesla at the Buffalo, NY, super factory. However, the outlook for the Matsushita Group's global solar business remains unclear. The group said it plans to introduce a single solar cell to the market beginning in FY2018 to conduct a full inspection of the global solar module plant and shut down its solar cell production line in Shiga, Japan by March 2018. Earlier this year, Panasonic closed a silicon ingot factory in Oregon, U.S.A.

Related reading: Solar PV Module,Small Solar Power System,Single Solar Cells.