Kyocera's net profit falls 20% to $491m as solar sales slide

The Kyoto-based group’s consolidated net sales for the nine-month period edged down 0.8% from the final nine months of 2014 to ¥1.09tln.

Despite disappointing sales, the applied ceramics division’s operating profit jumped 30.6% year on year to ¥12.5bn, due to efforts to slash costs in its solar business, it said in an online statement, without elaborating.

Sales of PV modules fell in Japan — where Kyocera recently started building what will be the world’s largest floating solar project — but rose in the US.

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