Apple’s iPhone LED screen maker Japan Display narrows quarterly losses, but sales take a nosedive | City A.M.

Cost cuts have helped Japan Display clawed back its losses for the last three months, but crashing sales numbers stopped celebrations short.

The maker of smartphone screens for companies such as Apple reported a net loss of ¥1.77bn (£12.4m) in its first quarter, at an almost 95 per cent decrease from ¥31.46bn in the same period a year earlier.

Japan Display put this down to the “benefits of structural reforms” which were implemented at the end of the last fiscal year, plus some additional income from an increase in capital of an affiliate business.

However the company’s sales took a sharp fall in the April to June period, plummeting 45 per cent year-on-year as smartphone makers adopt OLED screens over Japan Display’s preferred liquid crystal display (LCD) offering.

Read more: Japan Display shares slump as Apple to adopt OLEDs, plus new features

The net loss came in much further below the ¥15.44bn previously estimated by analysts, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Japan Display’s chief financial officer Takanobu Oshima remained confident that sales would increase over the next quarter, forecasting a 50 per cent jump as production of new LCD panels ramps up.

The company plans to manufacture smartphone OLED screens by 2019, leaving it far behind some of its competitors who are now taking market share from businesses such as Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi.

Japan Display’s share price remained flat as markets closed in Asia.