日本地震引發供應鏈中斷擔憂

Aftershocks rippled across the southern island of Kyushu on Sunday after a magnitude 7.3 disaster killed 41 people and brought the area’s high-tech manufacturing industry to a halt.

上週日，多起餘震在位於日本南端的整個九州島不斷擴散。此前，一場里氏7.3級的地震導致41人喪生，並讓該地區的高科技製造業陷入停頓。

In addition to the confirmed fatalities, more than 1,000 people were injured and 184,000 evacuated from their homes. In a graphic illustration of the earthquake’s power, the Great Aso Bridge — a single span of 206m opened in 1970 — collapsed into the ravine of the Black River below.

除了已確認的死亡情況外，還有逾1000人受傷，18.4萬人被疏散至住房以外。長206米、1970年通車的單孔大橋阿蘇大橋(Great Aso Bridge)崩塌，墜入了下方黑川(Black River)深邃的峽谷中，此次地震的破壞力可見一斑。

Kumamoto city, close to the epicentre, has a large semiconductor industry, while manufacturers such as Sony and Honda also have factories in the region. The quake left companies scrambling to determine the damage to their plants, sparking fears of disruption to the global supply chain. A shortage of parts out of Kyushu forced Toyota to begin temporary shutdowns at car plants across the country.

靠近震中的熊本市(Kumamoto city)擁有龐大的半導體工業，索尼(Sony)和本田(Honda)等製造商也在該地區建有工廠。地震令各企業慌忙確認工廠受到的損害，引發了全球供應鏈被打斷的擔憂。九州島配件供應短缺迫使豐田(Toyota)在全日本的汽車工廠啓動了臨時的停產措施。

Sony halted production of image sensors — which are used in Apple’s iPhones and other smartphone cameras — at its Kumamoto plant after the first quake on Thursday. Production lines at two other image sensor plants in nearby Nagasaki and Oita were restored on Sunday. Sony declined to comment on whether it could make up for the lost capacity by shifting production to its other plants.

上週四發生首次地震後，索尼暫停了熊本工廠的圖像傳感器生產，這種傳感器被用於蘋果(Apple)的iPhone和其他智能手機的攝像頭上。上週日，位於附近長崎和大分的另外兩處圖像傳感器工廠的生產線已恢復運行。對於是否能通過把生產轉移至其他工廠來彌補產能方面的損失，索尼拒絕置評。

Japanese companies have learnt lessons from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, when car factories from Nagoya to Alabama ground to a standstill after production halted at Renesas, a supplier of microcontrollers used in vehicles worldwide.

日本企業已經從2011年發生在東北地方的地震和海嘯中吸取教訓。當時，在瑞薩(Renesas)停產後，從名古屋到美國阿拉巴馬州的汽車工廠都陷入停頓。瑞薩是一家微控制器供應商，全球的汽車都使用其產品。

This time Renesas stopped its plant in Kumamoto but said the building’s exterior was not heavily damaged after it strengthened the structure’s quake resistance. It also keeps a certain level of inventories to sustain production. Renesas has, however, been unable to check inside the plant because of continued aftershocks.

這次地震瑞薩關閉了在熊本的工廠，不過該公司表示其工廠建築的外部並未遭遇嚴重損壞，原因是此前該公司加強了該建築的防震能力。該公司還保持了一定量的存貨以維持生產。不過，由於持續不斷的餘震，瑞薩未能檢查工廠內部的情況。

The Kyushu region has attracted such manufacturers in part because it is supposedly less prone to earthquakes. A local government homepage to recruit companies proudly claims that the region has not suffered a quake above magnitude 7 for the past 120 years.

九州地區會吸引這類製造商，部分是由於該地區原本不那麼容易受地震影響。當地政府的一個招商網頁曾驕傲地宣稱，過去120年該地區從未出現7級以上的地震。

Toyota, which has already halted operations at three plants in Kyushu, said that, due to parts shortages, it would suspend production lines at other domestic assembly plants in stages between April 18 and 23. The measure would affect a wide range of models including the Camry, Corolla and Prius.

豐田已關閉了位於九州島的三家工廠的運營。該公司表示，由於配件短缺，該公司會在4月18日到23日之間，分階段暫停其他日本國內裝配廠的生產線。這一措施或影響包括凱美瑞(Camry)、卡羅拉(Corolla)和普銳斯(Prius)在內的大批車型。

Honda said it had reduced its dependence on any single supplier and reinforced factory buildings so they can withstand strong earthquakes. It has suspended a motorcycle plant in Kumamoto due to damaged sewer pipes and lighting systems, but said the building remained intact.

本田表示已經減少對任何單個供應商的依賴，並加固了廠房建築使其能夠經受住強烈地震。該公司在熊本的一處摩托車廠因爲污水管道和照明系統受損而暫停運轉，但該公司表示廠房建築完好無損。

The island’s shinkansen high-speed railway was suspended and its two main motorways were cut in several places by landslides. Nothing abnormal was reported at any nuclear plant.

九州島新幹線高速鐵路暫停運營，兩條主要的高速公路因山體滑坡有多處阻斷。沒有關於任何核電站的異常報告。

Experts were repeatedly forced to reassess the nature of the disaster as the death toll from Japan’s worst earthquake since 2011 rose. With rain falling and more in prospect, officials warned residents to beware of landslides, as well as further earthquakes.

這場日本自2011年以來遭遇的最強地震的死亡人數不斷上升，專家們不得不一再重新評估此次災難的性質。由於目前的降雨和未來的降雨前景，政府官員提醒居民警惕山體滑坡以及更多地震。

“As of now, lively earthquake activity is continuing from Kumamoto to Oita prefectures,” said Gen Aoki, head of earthquake and tsunami observation at the Japan Meteorological Agency, on Sunday. “There is an ongoing possibility of ground slips from more strong tremors or the rain since yesterday.”

“目前，從熊本到大分縣一帶，活躍的地震活動還在持續，”日本氣象廳(JMA)地震津波監視課課長青木元(Gen Aoki)上週日表示，“仍然存在一種可能性，即更多的強震或自昨天開始的降雨會造成地面滑移。”

After a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck on Thursday, officials were taken aback when a 16-times more powerful magnitude 7.3 quake hit in the early hours of Saturday, leading them to reclassify the earlier quake as a pre-shock.

上週四發生6.5級地震後，上週六凌晨發生的7.3級地震讓官員們大吃一驚，後者的強度是前者的16倍，官員們將此前的那次地震重新界定爲前震。

Tremors kept spreading to the north-east, striking in three different zones of active faults — a pattern the JMA said was “unprecedented”. By Sunday, it had detected more than 400 tremors since the event began.

震動持續向日本東北部傳播，影響三個不同的活動斷層區域——日本氣象廳稱這種模式“史無前例”。截至上週日，日本氣象廳監測到自此次地震以來的400多次餘震。

Tomoki Nishikawa, president of the Sakurajuji Hospital in Kumamoto, which has been treating those injured in the disaster as public hospitals overflowed, said that although Kumamoto felt it had survived the first quake in fairly good shape, in the aftermath of the second, much larger tremor, “the city kind of died”.

由於公立醫院人滿爲患，熊本櫻十字醫院(Sakurajuji Hospital)一直在幫助救治災難傷者，該院理事長西川朋希(Tomoki Nishikawa)表示，儘管熊本市在第一次地震後狀態相當良好，在震級高得多的第二次地震以後，“這座城市可以算是死亡了”。

“I was driving around the city and in certain parts, you can see that 30 per cent of the homes are uninhabitable now. The city is still shaking and people have changed their attitudes since the second quake. They have seen crushed houses and they don’t want to go back to their own homes,” he said.

“我開車在城市中四處轉，在某些地方，你可以看到30%的房屋現在不適合居住。這座城市還在震動，人們在第二次地震後改變了態度。他們看到了擠壓變形的房屋，不願意回到自己的住所，”他說。