Japan: News from Distributors

European and international distributors offer online information about the delivery and supply situation regarding their Japanese linecards.

When it rains, it pours - it’s difficult to imagine a situation where this trite phrase is more appropriate than nowadays in Japan. As if the earthquake with following tsunami wasn’t bad enough, the damaged nuclear power plants contaminate a whole region and the nationwide food chain. To add insult to injury, power blackouts and destroyed infrastructure threaten the economy and with this rebuilding and decontamination. Since the main export goods are electronic components and systems, cars and, yes, power generation equipment, the future of Japan’s economy relies heavily on those industries. On the other end of the food chain, system integrators and OEMs worldwide rely on supplies from Japan.

Distributors in Europe are faced with many questions regarding the supply chain, some even complain about the rude behaviour of some OEMs who demand their goods without scruples. Double bookings seem to become a common way of making business, and brokers stash away components in order to sell them for high prices.
Most Distributors have set up microsites on their websites where they inform customers about the supply situation and delivery time regarding components from their linecards. Among those are the Avnet companies EBV, Avnet Memec, Avnet Abacus and Silica, but also Rutronik, MSC and TTI, and, as can be read on EPN Distiblog, Farnell’s online community element 14.

Since the manufacturing and supply situation changes all the time, component purchasers should check for updates regularly. EBV facilitates that by offering a special RSS feed.