Image on top: The Panasonic Fukushima plant
In an official press release Panasonic announced that Fukushima factory activity have been stopped. There is a lack of electricity, gas and water that forces them to shut down the production (Source: DC-watch).
Panasonic said that: “A few employees working at the Fukushima factory, the Sendai factory of AVC Networks Company and at the Koriyama factory of Panasonic Electronic Works received minor injury. Some part of the ceiling and wall were damaged, but there has been no fire or collapse. As regards the impact on our business operations we are in the process of investigation.” (Source: AP).
I guess this will cause supply problems with current cameras (they are made in Fukushima). Also the future new product release could suffer from some changes and delays. Reminder: The Panasonic G3 should have been announced between late March and late April.
P.S.: I didn’t hear anything about Olympus (don’t recall them to have their factories in the affected regions).