Rod Fitzgerald's 15 tons of swordfish and tuna bound for New York sushi bars spent 20 hours in the air Tuesday after terrorist attacks closed US airports. It finally ended up in Tokyo.
"We can't contact wholesalers in New York or Washington," said Fitzgerald, the general manager of De Brett Seafood, which ships about 70 tons of fish a month to the US from the Queensland resort of Mooloolaba. "Our fish isn't rotting in cargo bays yet, although that isn't far away."
Getting to the US, the biggest importer of Asian goods, is proving just as tricky for such companies as Amkor Technology Korea Inc and IOI Corp of Malaysia. Exporters were already confronting a slide in demand before the attacks and they now fear a rebound may be more distant.
In Singapore, which is in recession, exports dropped a record 30 percent last month from a year ago. Thailand expects exports to the US will fall as much as 12 percent after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, killing thousands of people.
"It's inevitable that exports to the US will be hurt by the terrorist attack, especially electronics and computer products," Thai Commerce Minister Adisai Bodharamik told reporters in Bangkok.
Korea estimates it is losing about US$25 million a day in exports.
Seo Dong Sun had to wait three days before she could find a plane to carry US$2.3 million of semiconductors to US customers, including Texas Instruments Inc, Motorola Inc and International Business Machines Corp.
"We couldn't meet our shipping deadline. Chips were piling up at Incheon airport," said Seo, a manager at Amkor, which ships about US$760,000 of chips to the US each day.
Exports account for about half of Korea's economy, with semiconductors making up 15 percent of overseas sales. The central bank had already forecast economic growth to slump to 3.8 percent this year from 8.8 percent in 2000.
Companies that send goods by sea haven't been spared as they face higher freight and insurance bills because of concerns the US will retaliate with military force.
"As in the Gulf War, if you have war zones, vessels have to detour and take the longer routes. Then the cost goes up," said Yeo How, chief executive of IOI, Malaysia's fourth-largest plantation group. Insurance costs may rise as much as 30 percent, he said.
The immediacy of grounded flights and bigger insurance bills might be followed by a longer slump in US consumer spending, executives said. Consumer confidence had already fallen to the lowest in eight-and-a-half years.
"People aren't going to be out shopping for clothes," said William Fung, managing director of Li & Fung Ltd., Hong Kong's largest trading company, which supplies companies such as Reebok International Ltd, Kohl Department Stores Inc, and Walt Disney Co with clothing and homewares.
Yesterday's rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve and European central banks to shore up investor and consumer confidence may not alleviate problems facing Asian exports. The Fed lowered rates half a percentage point to 3 percent. The European Central Bank matched the move, and the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank also cut their benchmark interest rates a half-percentage point.
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