India's electronics biz won't be affected: Japanese firms

Japanese consumer electronics firms, including Panasonic, Canon and Nikon, today said their businesses in India are unlikely to be affected in the immediate future despite damages to their factories in the island nation due to the earthquake and tsunami.

"We do not see immediate impact in terms of our business here. We already have two months stocks of our products and we mostly import from Singapore," Canon India Senior Vice-President Alok Bharadwaj told PTI.

At present, most of its products, including cartridges for printers, mid and high end cameras, are manufactured in factories located in Japan.

Bharadwaj said India's contribution to the global sales of Canon is relatively small. Last year Canon India had a revenue of Rs 1,260 crore, while that of Canon was at $37 billion.

Canon said last week's natural disaster affected seven plants located in Northern Japan, of which two are severely damaged.

Yesterday Canon had said production in Japan may be suspended for one or more months and "will consider making use of alternate sites that were not damaged by the earthquake as a means of continuing production."

Similarly, Panasonic India which imports high-end plasma television and cameras from Japan, said the company's operations here have not been impacted as it sources most of its products from other countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

"We are not affected. We are not facing any shortage of products for India at present," Panasonic India Director (Marketing) Manish Sharma said.

In a statement Panasonic Corporation said the tragedy has affected its business. "Like all Japanese companies, Panasonic was also affected by the terrible natural disaster that ravaged Japan."

While consumer durables giant Sony did not comment on the impact of its business for the Indian market, the company has halted operations in all the 6 factories in Japan.

"Due to continuing power cuts, we are unable to examine the damage at the factories with accuracy. Consequently, it is impossible to determine the estimated cost of damage, or when the damaged factories will resume its operation at this point in time," Sony said in a statement.

Similarly, another leading Japanese firm Nikon said though the tragedy will have an impact on its global sales, the company does not foresee any immediate shortage of products in the near future for the Indian market.

"We import our DSLR cameras and some raw materials from Japan. At present, we are not facing any delay in our shipment and we do not see any shortage in the immediate future," Nikon India General Manager(Sales and Marketing-Imaging Division) Sajjan Kumar said.