A 9.0 earthquake led to a massive tsunami on March 11th, which is now impacting supplies of certain products in the United States.
MYRTLE BEACH -- If you haven't seen a backlog on that new TV or Japanese-made car you were planning to buy, just wait a few weeks.
The earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan three weeks ago are having an impact on manufacturers around the world. Local business owners say, car buyers and electronics customers on the Grand Strand and in the Pee Dee will soon start to see the effects.
Over the last couple of years, buyers have been able to make great deals on plasma and LCD TV sets, at retailers like AVAC Superstore in Myrtle Beach.
But store owner Keith Ferrell says, that's about to change.
"I think what that's going to do with the shortage of products, it's going to stabilize pricing. You're not going to see the dramatic decreases and price drops that we've seen over the last couple years."
Ferrell has been put on notice by manufacturers like Sony and Toshiba that supplies of new TV's could become scarce over the next couple of months because of plant closures in Japan.
"Mitsubishi is getting very low on inventory in the U.S. right now."
Japanese plants supply components to manufacturers around the world, so other companies will also be affected, though Ferrell expects Chinese brands, like Coby, and Korean makers, like Samsung and LG, to step up.
"They do a lot of their own manufacturing, you're going to see a lot of products from those companies come to the forefront. They're going to be the least impacted."
Car makers are feeling the effects as well. Honda Motor Co. said Thursday that two of its assembly plants will
restart April 11, but only at half the normal rate. The company says that when the plants restart, all of its Japanese assembly plants will be running.
Mazda Motor Corp. says it will start making cars at the Hiroshima and Hofu plants Monday. A decision on resuming full-scale production will come later.
The sales manager at East Coast Honda in Myrtle Beach says Honda had a two-month inventory of cars already built, so availability at his dealership isn't an issue yet, but it will be, perhaps sometime after May.
There are also no vehicle shortage at Sparks Toyota in Horry County, but collision parts may be a problem in a couple of months.
"Fenders, different body panels, bumpers, that sort of stuff," said parts manager Brian Malcolm.
Malcolm says if any Toyota model is affected, it would probably be the hybrid Prius.
"We have availability of those models right now, they're in the supply line, so I would see that problem as well, probably a couple months down the road, if any."
The shortages affect NewsChannel 15 as well. The brand of video tapes we rely on are limited.
