Tokyo Electric, Toshiba, East Japan Rail may be among most affected

TOKYO: Tokyo Electric Power Co, Toshiba Corp, East Japan Railway Co and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co are among companies that may be most hurt by the strongest earthquake on record to hit Japan, analysts and investors said.

Tokyo Electric, battling to avoid a meltdown at its Fukushima nuclear plant, faces "severe" rebuilding costs and Toshiba's nuclear business may see increased scrutiny, said Minoru Matsuno, president of Value Search Asset Management Co in Tokyo.

Nippon Steel Corp, Suzuki Motor Corp and Canon on Sunday joined the growing number of companies saying their operations were hurt following the earthquake that rocked Japan and triggered tsunamis.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered Toshiba President Norio Sasaki to help with efforts to stop radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant, Kyodo News reported on Sunday, without citing anyone. Takashi Mizuno, a spokesman at Japan's largest maker of nuclear reactors, confirmed the meeting, though he couldn't verify the topics discussed. Toshiba said on Saturday it shut a semiconductor plant in the northern prefecture of Iwate.

East Japan Rail, which lost an estimated 60.2 billion yen ($731 million) from the 2004 Niigata Chuetsu earthquake, has the potential to incur a "major negative impact on earnings" because of the disaster, Hitoshi Hosoya, a Tokyo-based analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co, wrote in a March 11 report.

East Japan, the nation's largest train operator, suspended operations of trains in the Tohoku and Tokyo areas, along with its bullet-train operations on the day of the earthquake. As of Sunday, the company, known as JR East, hadn't resumed operations for trains going to Tohoku, Yamagata and Akita, according to its website.

Fumihisa Nishino, executive officer of JR East's transport safety department, said the company hasn't decided on when to resume Shinkansen and regional trains in the Tohoku district.

Shin-Etsu, which makes the silicon wafers needed to produce semiconductors, said on Saturday it stopped operations at its manufacturing complex in Annaka, Gunma prefecture; the Kashima Plant in Kamisu, Ibaraki prefecture; and the Shirakawa Plant in Nishigo Village, Fukushima prefecture. The company will resume operations after safety inspections and measures have been completed, it said on its website.

Disruptions at Shin-Etsu and Sumco Corp account for about 60% of the world's electronic wafers, will undermine global supply, according to Klaus Ringel, an analyst at Credit Agricole Cheuvreux. Shin-Etsu produced most of its wafers in the region that was hit the hardest, according to Cheuvreux.

Dennis Chan, an analyst at Yuanta Financial Holding Co, wrote on March 11 that Sony, which has factories in Fukushima-ken and Tochigi-ken in northern of Japan, may be affected. The company makes about 10% of the world's laptop batteries, according to Chan. The company said on Sunday that it's halting production at eight factories that make products ranging from Blu-ray discs, magnetic heads and batteries. That's two more plants than the company said on March 11.

Canon, Nippon Steel, Suzuki Motor, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, Nippon Paper Group, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Mitsubishi Motors Corp and convenience-store operator Lawson on Sunday disclosed they were affected or were suspending operations, joining the growing number of Japanese companies from Sony to Toyota Motor Corp.