(iTers News) -  The weak Japanese yen proved a blessing in the disguise for Soy Corp., who is struggling to   seize back leadership in global TV market. Defying high expectations that Sony would stand the chance to spur of it TV sales riding on the currency depreciation, it did little to deliver on the hypes in the first quarter, mainly due to the boomerang of what it had done to hedge the strong yen era. 

According to market research firm Display Search, Sony shipped 38.5% fewer TVs in the first three month of 2013 from a year, or just 22.54 million units.  In theory, a country’s currency depreciation against the dollar makes its exporters’ products cheaper, allowing them to undercut their competitors on price in overseas markets.

Yet, Sony’s TV manufacturing supply chain system has restructured itself so drastically that it is now poised to less benefit from the weak yen than before. For example, Sony wholly depends on Korean and Taiwanese TFT-LCD panel makers for 100% of its LCD panels to produce TVs. The company also assembles most of its TV output in offshore factories to make the production as little affected from the ups and downs in the currency value as possible.

This helps explain why Sony has not benefited as much from the weak yen as expected.

Meanwhile, LG and TCL made big gains in the 1st quarter TV shipments, witnessing 12.9% and 33.6% in the shipments of TV to 65.61 million units and 32.52 million units, respectively. LG and TCL ranked 2nd and 3rd in the global TV market both in terms of volume and value.