Above – Nikon Factory before the flood in Thailand.
Below – Nikon Factory after the flood, note the ISO sign.
The recent devestating flooding in Thailand has caused severe damage to Nikon’s factory there and currently there is no signs of recovery for the factory that is responsible for most of Nikons DSLR camera production. As evidenced by the photos above the flood damage has submerged the entire first floor of the plant, note the ISO registered sign in the before picture to see just how high the flood water reached.
Nikon released a statement on their Japanese website thats states the water level is as high as around 2 metres and there has been “no remarkable change” since October 12. The factory’s operations have been suspended since October 6th. Nikon is currently working on an assessment of how the flooding will impact on business, with the statement reading “we are now continuing our utmost to estimate the impact of the flood to our group companies and business performance” and suggesting it will report back with findings as soon as possible.
The estimated recovery time is also not known with Nikon saying that it will take “a certain time” for water pumping to be completed. Support from the Emergency Headquarters for Disaster Control has been sought, while new manufacturing equipment and production assignment among the whole Nikon group.
Low supplies for most entry-to-mid level DX DSLRs and lenses are now to be expected for Nikon’s products going into the Christmas shopping season. The D3100, D5100, D7000, D300s bodies, plus the 18-55mm DX, 18-105mm DX, 18-200mm DX, 70-300mm, 24-120mm, 28-300mm and 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens are all assembled at this plant. That’s basically the bulk of Nikon’s consumer DSLR sales, plus a large chunk of the low-end FX optics.
The flooding in Thailand has also caused damage to other factories such as Sony’s factory there responsible for the Sony NEX-5N and NEX-7, A65 cameras. Sony has already annoucned delays and postponments for these models as a result of the flooding.
