Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

With the tsunami driving up the ocean transport costs, Chinese household appliance makers are likely to raise the prices of some products, eastday.com reported.
Foreign home appliance makers such as Panasonic and Siemens have announced to raise the prices of some refrigerator and washing-machine models by three to five percent.
Due to a shortage of imported steel, Chinese household appliance makers are facing a great pressure of rising costs.
"In order to guarantee production and market supply during the peak season of the upcoming Spring Festival, we have already adopted the quality imported steel we kept as the strategic reserve in manufacturing microwave ovens," said a spokesman with the Midea Group, one of the leading microwave oven producers in China.
"In a short term, the tsunami hasn't had a large impact on our outsourcing, but we are keeping a close eye on it," the spokesman stressed.
After the tsunami took place, the transport businesses on the Indian Ocean have been suspended frequently, and many transport companies have to cut the number of the dispatched ships, said an industry analyst. Therefore, many domestic producers, depending on imported steel, such as microwave oven makers - Midea and Galanz, are largely affected, he added.