http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/first-pi ... tion-stop/ Apparently Nikon's plant has also been submerged like this. ; Sony makes most of the digital cameras at this plant, Nikon makes all of their consumer dSLRs at theirs. ; So first the damage at Sendai, now this..... Canon also has a plant there but it is on higher ground, so the damage is minimal. ;
Amazing that so many companies fail to consider locations when building their facilities. ; One would think that a low, flat floodplain next to a river with a 50-yr major flood cycle would either not be an optimal place to develop a technology park, or would at least require prudence in building some flood resistance into the facility. ; Yet a few dozen companies were all crammed in there without any due diligence! ; Factories in the long, low northern coastal flats near Sendai, next to a historically active thrust fault which commonly produces tsunamis; building brick or slab cement factories in earthquake prone countries and areas; building aluminum and unreinforced warehouse structures in historically hurricane/cyclone active areas...it's amazing how often you see this type of thing. ; I guess they're all figuring the amount they are saving through cheap construction, low land cost, incentives from third-world countries, and cheap labor are enough to offset the inevitable and eventual losses when disasters do occur...but it seems that a little extra investment in proper construction of facilities to deal with the natural disaster risk of the area would allow much less overall loss, while still saving on low-cost labor and third-world incentives. Between the Japan tsunami and the thai flooding, it does seem that mother nature is angry at Japanese technology/manufacturing companies lately! ; Japanese cameras, sensors, automobiles, printers, etc have all been hit hard this past year!
We're gonna need a bigger boat. ; Seriously though, hopefully no one was hurt with this. ; Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Unfortunately, the floods have taken hundreds of lives already, with tens of thousands displaced. ; Our obvious interest in camera gear, and the impact to Sony and Nikon's production, make that the topic of the discussion, but it goes without saying that these issues are absolutely of the very least importance in the overall bigger picture, and all prayers go to the Thai people suffering these floods, as well as the Japanese still recovering from the tsunami. ; Let this be a blanket statement that any future discussion on cameras and camera production from these plants do not in any way detract from the concern for the affected people or indicate that they are not the most important issue concerning these floods.
