Toyota Material Handling USA Inc (TMHU) and Toyota Industries Corporation (TIC) have joined JCB, Raymond, Komatsu and Linde by donating cash to assist victims of last Boxing Day's tsunami tragedy.

TMHU and TIC have jointly contributed USD300,000 to the American Red Cross, with most of the money to go to southern Asia's earthquake and tsunami disaster relief efforts.

A small part of the donation was sent to the Orange County, California, branch of the Red Cross to help families displaced by local disasters.

The aftermath of the December 26 tsunami, that saw more than 220,000 lives lost, offered materials handling companies worldwide a chance to help.

The Linde Technology Group supplied free medical gases to Thai hospitals to treat casualties and provided logistics equipment to "Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen" (Aviation without Frontiers) to transport aid supplies.

Komatsu pledged JPY200 million (USD1.9 million) of aid to tsunami-ravaged areas (Forkliftaction.com News #191).

Raymond Corporation and its dealer network donated USD340,000 to help victims (Forkliftaction.com News #200).

JCB increased the company's initial assistance to tsunami-hit Asia from USD1 million to USD2 million of equipment in late January (Forkliftaction.com News #193).