Flooding Affects Camera Manufacturers

The Nikon Thailand plant at Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya Province, Thailand, partially submerged in floodwaters. Photo by Noppatjak Attanon.

Anyone's first concern in a natural disaster is for peoples' lives and livelihood. Even as new Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra admits that her government is essentially overwhelmed by the scale of the disasters there, the widespread flooding—it has affected 27 of the country's 77 provinces—has claimed 317 victims, most drowned, and has caused suffering and hardship for many others. In a story such as this they deserve to be mentioned first, and we offer our condolences to the families affected and our wishes for an end to the crisis.

The flood has also affected a number of Japanese industries that relocated to Thailand seeking cost savings. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan plants have been hit hard. Electronics company Pioneer is one of the two companies that has seen its stock fall the furthest in Tokyo as a result of flood losses. The other, Nikon, confirmed in a statement last week that the first floor of its DSLR plant at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya Province in Central Thailand is submerged.

Thom Hogan reports that the Ayutthaya plant builds the D3100, D5100, D7000, and D300s bodies, as well as many of the basic bread-and-butter entry-level zooms.

Sony builds all of its DSLRs in the Ayutthaya area, which is about an hour north of Bangkok, although the effects of flooding at Sony plants are not known. In a chart listing the "Effects" of the various companies' damages, Thailand's Nation Multimedia lists the Nikon and Sony plants as having "no prospect of recovery." As the larger company, Sony might have more options for relocating production.

The disaster could have potentially long-term effects on supplies of products and on the economic performance of the various companies affected. Obviously, coming on the heels of the tsunami, this is very bad news for Nikon and other companies that saw repercussions from both disasters. Nikon Japan announced on Monday that it will donate substantial humanitarian aid to its host country Thailand.

Again, we express our sympathy for our Thai readers and all the people of Thailand who find themselves facing distress or who have had their lives disrupted.

Mike
(Thanks to Oren)

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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Darin Boville]

>>Nikon Japan announced on Monday that it will donate substantial humanitarian aid to its host country Thailand.<<

Does $400,000 seem like "substantial" humanitarian aid from a major corporation given the scale of the disaster? To give it context here is a list of US-based corporations (including foregoing companies with subsidiaries here) that gave to the Japanese tsunami effort:

http://bclc.uschamber.com/Programs/disaster/corporate-aid-tracker-japanese-earthquake-and-tsunami-march-2011

--Darin

[David Boyce]

...and it's not just cameras, it's other associated hardware as well http://www.infoworld.com/t/hard-drives/the-impending-hard-drive-shortage-and-possible-price-hikes-176453

[Charles Lanteigne]

By now you must have heard about some Sony cameras being removed from Amazon.com, claiming "manufacturing concerns."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005IHAIEI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=photorumors-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005IHAIEI

Various sources have linked that to the floods.

[Yger]

Neither floods nor quakes can ever make companies move to America!

[juze]

Good grief, I really feel sorry for the people. I lost my car in a flood about a year ago, and I felt like the world collapsed around me, yet I have a perfectly decent* job and my home was intact.
I can't imagine how they feel.

Fsck cameras, hard drives and everything else, it's the people who are important.

* A job about which I shall bitch and moan endlessly to anyone who won't resort to physical violence to shut me up, but it pays my bills and isn't all that awful, truth be told.

[toto]

"Does $400,000 seem like "substantial" humanitarian aid from a major corporation given the scale of the disaster?"

Considering that they were adversely affected by the earthquake and tsunami, and now the floods, I would say yes.

[Dave Wilson]

My sympathies to those affected. Should anyone care, the BBC is reporting that the Sony NEX-7 and A65 cameras have been delayed "indefinitely". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15380718

[Charles Lanteigne]

From PhotoRumors:

"Sony Japan publish a statement confirming Amazon's product listing note that the NEX-7, NEX-5N, NEX-C3 and a65 cameras will be postponed."

http://www.photorumors.com/2011/10/20/sony-nex-7-nex-5n-nex-c3-and-a65-now-officially-delayed/

[MIkal W. Grass]

400 grand is alot of salami, regardless of how you slice it.

What one company gives for humanitarian aid is nobody's business.

Tell Nikon to give $2,000,000.00 and watch the price of your cameras go up.

At least they are giving money for humanitarian aid, unlike Olympus which threw close to $700,000,000 at a bunch of criminals and hookers.

[Russell Guzewicz]

No one can understand a disaster such as this until they have been through it. We here in the southern tier of New york understand. I hope that, like us, you have a good community behind you and you will get through this.