Honda Portable Generators Run Out as Quake Cripples Output (Bloomberg)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Anna Mukai - Apr 4, 2011 2:10 AM CT

Portable power generators made by Honda Motor Co., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270) and Yamaha Motor Co. are running out after Japan’s largest earthquake crippled production while simultaneously stoking demand.

Orders for the generators, used to provide hot baths and meals to survivors of the magnitude-9 temblor and ensuing tsunami, surged after the disaster knocked out power plants, causing electricity shortages.

“We’re completely out,” said Ryuzo Nishikawa, who runs his own company in Tokyo selling generators made by Fuji Heavy and Yamaha. “We ran out three days after the quake, but we’ve been receiving orders from hospitals and factories every day.”

Companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. halted output after last month’s disaster devastated northeastern Japan, damaging factories that make parts and materials and disabling a nuclear-power plant. The government estimates damage from Japan’s strongest earthquake to be as much as 25 trillion yen ($299 billion), or 0.5 percent of Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest.
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Nishikawa said he called Yamaha and Fuji Heavy asking for more and was told the companies were prioritizing orders from the government, the Self-Defense Force and from people in the region directly hit by the natural disasters.
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more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-04/honda-portable-generators-run-out-as-earthquake-cripples-output.html