JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: IMPACT ON COMMODITIES AND ENERGY SECTORS APRIL 2011 Flowers offered to tsunami victims are seen at an area damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, April 10, 2011. REUTERS/Toru Hanai (Click on the below headlines to jump to the story) • Calls grow for Japan PM to quit in wake of quake • Japan economy to take hit from quake, nuclear accident • TEPCO's liability may be capped at $24-45 bln – Yomiuri • Nuclear fears keep shippers wary of travel to Japan • Details of Japan refinery, utilities and smelter shutdowns • Oil tanker, dry bulk fixtures to Japan since quake • Japan's disaster in figures JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: IMPACT ON COMMODITIES AND ENERGY SECTORS Calls grow for Japan PM to quit in wake of quake Aftershocks bigger than 6: ( http://link.reuters.com/net88r ) By Linda Sieg and Mayumi Negishi Picture, graphic packages: ( http://r.reuters.com/wyb58r ) TOKYO Tanigaki's comment reflects the view of many in his conserva- tive party that Kan must step down as a precondition for any apan's fragile post-disaster political truce unravelled on coalition as well as a hope that criticism of Kan within his own Thursday as the head of the main opposition party called Democratic Party will gather steam after party powerbroker J on unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan to quit over his Ichiro Ozawa blasted the premier over his crisis management. handling of the country's natural calamities and a nuclear crisis. Upper House speaker Takeo Nishioka, a well-known Kan critic from the Democrats, also urged Kan to resign, Kyodo said. At the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in the northeast of the country, engineers were struggling to find a new way to cool Kan, however, who took office as Japan's fifth leader since one of the six crippled reactors and Japan's Nuclear and In- 2006 last June, is not likely to step down readily, while oppo- dustrial Safety Agency said it was now "highly likely" there sition parties could come under fire if they try to take disaster was a hole in the suppression unit of the reactor. budgets hostage in a political battle, analysts said. Kan, whose public support stands at about 30 percent, had "Kan will probably ignore this," said Koichi Nakano, a Sophia sought a grand coalition to help the country recover from its University professor. "If they thought of the national interests, worst ever natural disaster and enact bills to pay for the coun- would they (Kan's critics) do this now?" try's biggest reconstruction project since World War Two. STILL NO CLOSER TO SOLVING NUCLEAR CRISIS Kan's Democratic Party controls parliament's lower house but Five weeks ago a massive earthquake and tsunami left nearly needs opposition help to pass bills because it lacks a majority 28,000 dead or missing, devastated a broad swathe of north- in the upper chamber, which can block legislation. east Japan and damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant. There But the head of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party has been no sign of a resolution of the atomic crisis. (LDP) -- who last week ruled out joining hands -- on Thursday The nuclear safety agency said a new plan for cooling one of pressured Kan to go. "The time has come for (the prime min- six reactors at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of To- ister) to decide whether he stays or goes," Kyodo news agency kyo, may be needed due to the large volume of highly radioac- quoted Sadakazu Tanigaki as telling a news conference. tive water on site, and tests would be done to determine if Nuclear incidents since 1956: ( http://link.reuters.com/wym58r ) damaged spent fuel rods were emitting radiation. Evacuation zone: ( http://link.reuters.com/put78r ) Anna Monma, 5, walks with her teddy bear, which she retrieved from her house destroyed by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in Ishinomaki, northern Japan April 3, 2011. REUTERS/Carlos Barria 2 JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: IMPACT ON COMMODITIES AND ENERGY SECTORS "It may be difficult to completely remove the contaminated "Given the potential scale of the cost, it might need to be water and so allow work to proceed (in restoring power to the shouldered by the entire Japanese people. That's why I men- cooling pumps). We may need to think of other options," said tioned (the special tax). But nothing concrete has been de- Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of Japan's Nu- cided," Iokibe told a news conference after the panel's first clear Industry and Safety Authority. meeting. Nishiyama said there was 20,000 tonnes of contaminated Business confidence plunged to a record low in April, accord- water in the basement and a tunnel under reactor No. 2. ing to a Reuters survey, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the risk to the world's third largest economy "What makes the No.2 unit decisively different from No.1 and No.3 units are that it is highly likely that there is a hole on the is firmly on the downside. (No.2 unit's) suppression chamber after as an explosion was The IMF cut Japan's economic growth forecast to 1.4 percent heard. It would be an accurate speculation that there is leak- this year from 1.6 percent, projected three months ago, and age." the Bank of Japan is expected to cut its January growth fore- Engineers are also concerned that some spent fuel rods were cast of 1.6 percent when it issues its twice-yearly outlook on damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and could April 28. ($1 = 83.890 yen) be emitting high levels of radiation. Japan's nuclear crisis has been rated on par with the world's Japan economy to take hit from quake, nuclear worst nuclear crisis at Chernobyl in 1986, although the total accident amount of radiation released is only a fraction of that when the nuclear plant in Ukraine exploded. By Shinichi Saoshiro and Taiga Uranaka Japan has expanded a 20-km (12-mile) evacuation zone TOKYO around the plant because of high accumulated radiation. No apan cut the outlook for its economy on Wednesday for radiation-linked deaths have been reported and only 21 plant the first time in six months, saying last month's devastat- workers have been affected by minor radiation sickness. J ing quake and tsunami would hurt growth, with no sign A series of strong aftershocks this week has rattled eastern yet when the nuclear crisis they triggered might be brought Japan, slowing the recovery effort at the plant due to tempo- under control. rary evacuations of workers and power outages. The total cost New data shows much more radiation leaked from the Fuku- of the damage has been estimated at $300 billion, making it shima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the early days of the cri- the world's most costly natural disaster. sis than first thought, though the U.S. nuclear safety regulator Makoto Iokibe, head of a newly created government panel said the crisis appeared to be "static" as engineers at the Fu- tasked to come up with a revival plan, floated the idea of set- kushima nuclear plant struggle to cool overheating fuel rods. ting up a special reconstruction tax in addition to bond sales and donations as ways to fund the bill. 3 JAPAN EARTHQUAKE: IMPACT ON COMMODITIES AND ENERGY SECTORS After recent fears of possible contamination in the region, strontium, one of the most harmful radioactive elements, had neighbouring China said that the impact there had been been found in soil near Fukushima Daiichi. small, noting the amount of radiation was about one percent Hidehiko Nishiyama, a deputy director-general of the Nuclear of what it had experienced from the world's worst nuclear dis- and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), said the decision to raise aster at Chernobyl. The total cost of the March 11 triple disas- the severity of the incident from level 5 to 7 -- the same as the ter has been estimated at $300 billion, making it the world's Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 -- was based on cumu- most costly natural disaster. lative quantities of radiation released. "The effects of the earthquake will be temporary. It will cause NO RADIATION-LINKED DEATHS various indirect damage such as dampening consumer senti- ment but the economy will pick up toward the end of this year. No radiation-linked deaths have been reported since the That's what many economists are thinking," Japanese Eco- earthquake struck, and only 21 plant workers have been af- nomics Minister Kaoru Yosano said. fected by minor radiation sickness, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The new economic assessment for a country that has been mired in recession for most of the past 15 years came after Late on Tuesday, Edano said he was aware the upgrading of another relatively strong quake rocked northeastern Japan on the severity classification would worry people, although the Wednesday. But there were no reports of any damage to a top U.S. nuclear regulator backed the move. region already devastated by last month's tremor and tsu- "The efforts continue to ... transition from static to stable to nami. ensure long-term ultimate ability to cool the reactors and to Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) appears to provide cooling to the spent fuel pools," Gregory Jaczko, chair- be no closer to restoring cooling systems that are critical to man of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission told a Sen- lowering the temperature of overheated nuclear fuel rods in ate committee hearing in Washington.