Express services to and from most areas of Japan are now almost back to normal, following theearthquake and tsunami on 11 March, although several prefectures in the north-east of the country
remain unreachable, operators have told CEP-Research. However, factory closures and other issuesare continuing to create problems for the supply chains of several industries, including theautomotive and hi-tech sectors, according to various reports.FedEx said yesterday that its money-back guarantees had been reinstated in Japan, with immediateeffect. A spokeswoman told CEP-Research: “Our services in eastern Japan have returned to normal,with the exception of Fukushima, Miyagi and parts of Ibaraki prefectures, which were devastated bythe earthquake.” However, the company said unavoidable service delays should still be expected forpick-ups or deliveries around Koriyama City and Sendai City Miyagino-Ku prefectures.
TNT Express said it had resumed most operations in Japan last week, including all air export andimport services, warehousing services, clinical express services, and ground deliveries in areasnot impacted by the earthquake or the nuclear emergency. “Nearly 100% of TNT’s Japanese staff havecontinued to go to work, despite exceptionally long travelling times,” a spokesman toldCEP-Research. “All of TNT’s pick-up and delivery vehicles are operational. The internationalgateways of Tokyo Narita, Tokyo Haneda and Osaka/Kansai re-opened very quickly after the quake.”& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>
However, he said service restrictions remain in place within parts of Japan, due to the nuclearemergency and infrastructure damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. “TNT Express hassuspended service within the 30 km exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Poweroutages, queues at gas stations, and infrastructure damage in several parts of the country havealso caused service delays to northern and eastern parts of central Japan.”
TNT stressed that it was continuing to monitor the nuclear emergency, in order to protect itsstaff, whose safety was its primary concern. “Most of TNT’s employees in Japan work in andaround the areas of Tokyo and Osaka, where radioactivity levels were considered safe last week,”the spokesman added. “Radioactivity levels in Tokyo’s water have just been reported unsafe. We willfollow the advice of Japanese and international health authorities and take all necessary measuresto help protect our staff and their families.”
UPS said all its flights to and from Japan were operating normally, as were most ocean freightservices. “We never suspended any of our UPS Airlines flights into Narita and also havecontinued normal operations with flights into Kansai (Osaka),” said a spokeswoman. “We’re alsooperating air freight forwarding activities through gateways in Nagoya and Fukuoka. All majorports in Japan are also open and operational – Tokyo, Yokohama, Shimizu, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe andHakata – and UPS is providing ocean freight services through these ports. The exception for us isthat there are no ocean freight services through Sendai.”
Most ground services were also operational. “As of 23 March, UPS service is only suspended inpostal codes within these prefecture areas in the north-eastern, quake-impacted, areas: Aomori,Akita, Iwate, Fukushima, Miyagi, Yamagata,” said the spokeswoman. “We are expecting to resumeservice in three more prefectures by week’s end.”
Japan’s automotive sector is reported to have been severely affected by the earthquake, withmany assembly and parts-manufacturing plants forced to close. Toyota is understood to have shutdown all 18 of its assembly plants in Japan until at least 26 March, although two plants thatproduce hybrids are scheduled to resume production on Monday, according to Bloomberg. The other bigtwo Japanese automotive producers, Nissan and Honda, are also said to be struggling to resumeproduction at some plants, along with a number of parts suppliers.
Their involvement in global supply chains has also produced a knock-on effect in other parts ofthe world, according to reports. Certain sections of several hi-tech supply chains were also saidto be under pressure due to supply challenges in Japan.
The UPS spokeswoman said: “We’ve maintained contact with customers, who are working with us fortheir flexible supply chains, sourcing from other locations and using other distributionfacilities.” She said it was too soon to predict whether these challenges would have a significantimpact on ex-Japan volumes.
All four of the big global integrators said they had been participating in humanitarian aidefforts, with UPS and FedEx each pledging US$1 million of financial support and in-kindtransport of emergency supplies, and provision of trained humanitarian logistics personnel, whileTNT Express yesterday completed the delivery of 70,000 blankets on behalf of the World FoodProgramme.
