Local Japan-linked companies see no disruptions

Clark County businesses with parent companies in Japan received reassuring news Friday from corporate offices, with no reports of injuries and mostly minor damage to offices or production plants. They expected no disruptions to local business or manufacturing operations.

Two local businesses, Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas in Camas and SEH America in Vancouver, reported that employees traveling in Japan were unharmed by the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Both companies had about a half-dozen employees in Japan at the time of the record-breaking quake north of Tokyo.

“As of this morning, everyone is accounted for and safe,” said John Marck, president of Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas. Marck said he’d received no first-person accounts but was closely following the news of the natural disaster.

“It’s very severe,” he said. “The devastation and especially the loss of life is saddening.”

While countless factories across Japan were closed for safety checks, spokesmen for local companies said they expected their companies’ facilities to reopen almost immediately. They were making contacts to find out whether sub-contractors would be able to continue supplying plants in Japan, but expected local production to continue even if they had to turn to contingency plans.

Kokusai Semiconductor Equipment Corp., designer and manufacturer of thermal furnaces used in semiconductor plants, reported little or no damage to its office in Tokyo or production plant in Toyama, said Rob Bernardi, a company spokesman at its Vancouver site.

Employees of the company, a subsidiary of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc., were sending e-mails from the company’s 11th-floor office during the quake, Bernardi said. “They were e-mailing us that it was a good shaker,” he said.