By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Panasonic Corp on Wednesday posted a larger-than-expected 44% slide in third-quarter operating profit, hit hard by rising costs for raw materials, component shortages and a drop in domestic sales for appliances. Panasonic has sought to reduce its reliance on low-margin consumer electronics and appliances, shifting its focus to automotive batteries for Tesla Inc, production machinery, components and more recently supply chain management services. That said, consumer and home appliances, which benefited from a stay-at-home sales boom during coronavirus lockd…