Impacts of the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Published:2011/3/14 22:21:00 Author:LiuQiaoyan From:SeekIC

The catastrophic earthquake and the following tsunami in Japan destroyed vital infrastructure and knocked out factories producing. Global companies faced disruption to operations aftermath. Thousands of people have been lost their lives and millions have been left without electricity, water and homes after Friday’s 9 magnitude quake triggered a massive tsunami which tore across the whole coastline north of Tokyo.

Many firms have been obliged to suspend production, and shares of some biggest companies in Japan started to tumble on Monday, with Sony and Toyota falling 9 percent and 8 percent respectively. Experts and analysts said it is too early to accurately speculate how long the disruptions will take despite the initial damages. But people in Tokyo and the surrounding areas during the next few weeks are going to suffer aftershocks and worry about the threat of major radiation leaks from damaged nuclear power plants and the power cut as well as the challenge of inspecting and repairing north Japan.

Japan is one of the major electronics manufacturers, taking up to 14 percent of the global production of computers, consumer electronics and communications gear last year. Some of the most affected victims are foreign companies that depend heavily on Japan supplies, from chip equipment, silicon wafers to other products to produce semiconductors. For example, Hynix Semiconductor, the world’s No.2 memory chipmaker, said they were worry about the quake may cut down consumer demand further and impact supplies of chip components. Hynix shares surged almost 9 percent on expectations of a short-term boost to chip prices and reduced competition, while shares in Toshiba dived 16 percent. Toshiba provide more than one third of the NSND memory chips for devices all over the world such as Apple’s new favorite iPad, said it was starting the process of restarting a chip factory in Iwate, northern Japan.

The spot price for DRAM chips, which mostly used in personal computers, had started rising in China and the PC and system manufactures should be more proactive in DRAM inventory for the forthcoming peak season, the chip price tracker DRAMExChange said.

As the world’s largest mobile phone maker, Nokia said it was investigating the impact on supplies. And recently it has renegotiated its supplier contract in Japan in order to cut risks from the swings of Japanese yen. The related integrated circuit is M67785H.

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