Hello. I'm Marumi.
In the last blog, I mentioned about the situation of Japanese manufacturing companies after the earthquake. Their business has been improved especially in September. However, a disaster which threatened them is happening again.
It is in Thailand, a devastating flood has hit. The news of the flood has been reported in Japan since the beginning of this October. However, it seems that from August to October is a rainy season in Thailand, and there has been some damage through the season. More than 283 people have died since the middle of July, and even the world heritage temple is in danger.
Because of the flood, lots of plants are damaged in Thailand.
This is the article from the Japan Times.
In the Hi-Tech Industrial Estate, Japanese factories have reduced the production due to the flood, but the last remaining workers have finally abandoned the factories. Before the workers leave the factories, they hurriedly moved some machines to higher ground and put plastic sheets and sandbags in order to protect the machines. The estate included some manufacturing electronic devices and automotive parts, and 60,000 employees worked there. Other estates which contain factories were submerged and employees were forced to evacuate. According to the Thai Labour Ministry, it is estimated that 200,000 workers in Ayutthaya Province’s industrial estate cannot work due to the flood.
Moreover, Thai’s world heritage site, the Wat Chai Watthanaram temple is submerged under 2 meters of water.
Major dams in the country are almost full capacity, and Bangkok will also be submerged soon.
The article from asahi.com mentions the situations of some Japanese companies.
Japanese companies are needed to make a plan to relocate their operations to other countries. Canon Inc. plans to move some production to drier areas of Thailand and Vietnam. Pioneer Corp., whose two plants have submerged, will increase production in China. The hardest industry in the current situation would be automakers. Honda Motor Co. has suspended the production, and the officials cannot even approach their plant. Other automakers have also stopped their production. According to the Bangkok office of the Japan External Trade Organization, about 300 Japanese-affiliated companies have been damaged by the flood. It will have impact not only on Japanese economy, but also Thai economy because Japanese-affiliated companies employ 20 percent of Thai’s export workers who work at manufacturing industry.
Finally, this article mentions the attitude of JETRO (Japanese trade organisation) .
JETRO criticized Thailand’s government because it did not provide timely and accurate information about the floods. Japanese companies could not understand what was happening when the floods happened. They only received warnings but, they were not enough to decide their next step.
Japanese manufacturing companies have revived their business after the earthquake in March, but the flood in Thailand is the new problem for them. I wonder why so severe problems for manufacturers have happened in short time. Hope the situation will be better in Thailand, and the production at plants will be started again.
Earthquake and flood, they have been suffering many Japanese companies. That means Japanese economic is dameaged too. I am really worried about Japanese future. Now we have many problem to solve in all over Japan. Most of Japanese worry about our future.
ReplyDeleteJapan got great influence on the world not because of Japanese government. It is because Japanese industry was excellent. What I would like to say is now Japan is having hard time what brighten Japan is Japanese industry.
Therefore it was really huge damage for all over Japan. So it is time for all of us to work together for shining future.
Lily
Marumi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comprehensive news report. This is a situation where you could say, "If it is not one thing it is another." The earthquake and tsunami effects are just getting sorted out and yet another disaster, which affects not only Thailand but the rest of the world including Japan. The economy is a fragile thing and once again it is getting a beating.
Nature is a powerful thing and we are visitors on this planet so we have to cope with whatever nature gives us.
Next time, please write on a different topic - the news was only for Blog #1.
Ms. MacGregor