Although Panasonic factories that were damaged in Japan’s catastrophic earthquake have been repaired and are once again operating, Panasonic Corp still faces many challenges.

Additional demand for the company for reconstruction efforts in northern Japan is not expected to boost business and continuing supply-chain disruptions and power cuts are expected to impact business.

"Basically, I have the strong sense that the 2011/2012 financial year will be extremely tough", President, Fumio Ohtsubo told reporters.

While Panasonic posted its first annual profit in three years last year, they have delayed releasing an earnings forecast for the upcoming year because of the difficulties in estimating the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

These challenges have led Panasonic to announce that they will shed at least 17,000 employees and close up to 70 factories worldwide by March 2013.

The job cuts will be in roughly equal proportions between Japanese and foreign operations according to Ohtsubo.

Meanwhile, Panasonic also faces tough competition from other Asian consumer electronics giants such as South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and LG.

In order to compete, Panasonic has signaled its intentions to shift its operations towards environmental and energy-related businesses such as rechargeable batteries.

As a part of the change in strategy, Panasonic will also halt any new investments into plasma and liquid-crystal display operations.