There was tragic news this weekend which featured news accounts, pictures and video of the devastating effects of two separate typhoons that struck eastern Asia. Typhoon Morakot struck both Taiwan and the mainland of China, resulting in the loss of human life, with hundreds still unaccounted for. News reports indicate that the typhoon dumped more rain on Taiwan than any other 48 hour period since records began 100 years ago. Over 80 inches of rain fell on some parts of the island, with Alishan in southern Chiayi County reporting that 118 inches of rain fell over a 3 day period.
The storm weakened to a tropical storm status when it made landfall in mainland China, but according to The China Daily, has impacted more than 8.8 million people in three provinces. The storm has toppled more than 6000 houses and inundated over 387,000 hectares of farmland. Direct economic losses have initially been estimated at $1.3 billion USD. China’s National Meteorological Center predicts violent rainstorms to continue in the southern region on Monday. The impacted regions on mainland China supply much agricultural products including rice and tea, as well as providing manufacturing activities in certain industries.
A separate storm, Typhoon Etau has slammed into the west coast of Japan with 13 people reported killed, and ten others missing. Authorities thus far have evacuated 47,000 persons. Transportation has already been disrupted including the closing of highways and suspension of rail lines in the impacted regions.
The effects of both typhoons are obviously still evolving as government and rescue agencies continue to deal with the ongoing effects of the storm on people, property and commerce. Transportation to and from the impacted regions continues to be interrupted.
Taiwan is a major area of high tech electronics and semiconductor manufacturing, and supply chain risk mitigation teams residing in these sectors should be mobilized to begin assessment of the storm and its impacts on supply or production, if any.
In the coming days, teams should know more about the overall impacts to industry supply chains but from all of the initial reports, my sense is that supply chain impacts will be inevitable.
Hi Everyone,
A brief update as of this morning (Eastern US time) regarding the devestating effects of two typhoons and now three separate earthquakes in the Eastern Asia region.
The government of Taiwan has indicated a preliminary estimate of agriculture and fishery losses amounting to NT $7.8 billion ($237 million) as of Wednesday, which includes agricultural, livestock, and fishery losses.
Corning Inc. has indicated that LCD output will be impacted as a result of the earthquake effects that impacted its Shizuoka Japan plant. Glass making production at the plant has been suspended for some time, according to a company spokesperson. Corning is assessing options for accelerating the restarting of other idled glass-melting tanks within other facilities. The company further indicated that its other glass-making operations in the region have not been impacted.
Bob Ferrari
Hi Everyone,
Another update relative to the recent typhoon and earthquake incidents in eastern Asia.
Reports are that seven undersea cables linking telecommunications and Internet traffic among various Asian countries were damaged by underwater landslides triggered by last weekend’s typhoons. The full extent of damage to the cables is still unclear but various telecommunications carriers have managed to re-route traffic and limit service disruption.
Yesterday, Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom Co. indicated that four of the undersea cables it operates have suffered damage, and two of the these lines are still interrupting calls routed to Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philliphines.
Meanwhile, mobile phone communications on the island of Taiwan are slowly returning back to normal service as crews repair a large number of cell towers that received damage from the winds and rain.
Bob Ferrari