Asian techs brace for attack aftermath

By CNN's Kristie Lu Stout

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Asia's export-heavy technology sector is likely to be severely hit by the devastating airplane attacks in New York and Washington D.C.

"We know it will affect everybody, not just us," said John Gatt, spokesperson of Taiwan's leading chipset maker VIA Technologies.

"The market has been struggling. This is going to top it off."

Disruptions in airline travel may impede trade, with the heightened security at airports worldwide lifting shipping and logistics costs.

The attacks may also frighten consumers from buying, feeding a cycle of plummeting consumer demand and economic despair.

"The non-necessity markets like high-end PCs will be affected," said Gatt.

"People don't go out and waste money in times like this. The whole market will definitely be affected."

News of the terror attacks sent Asian shares plunging, with Japan's tech-sensitive Nikkei index sinking as low as 9604.40 -- the first time it had been below 10,000 since 1984.

Big tech exporters to the U.S. such as Toshiba and NEC were among those hard hit.

Deep impact

Industry insiders fear that the already depressed tech stocks may slip even further when the American stock markets re-open, destroying hopes that the region's battered tech stocks had already bottomed out.

"There's no doubt it will impact everybody's business, but the effect we don't know -- we don't know until the American stock market opens up," said Gatt.

Gartner Group Asia Pacific technology analyst Lane Leskela told CNN the attack was likely to have a significant economic impact, but a clear assessment of that impact would not be available for a few days.

"They can't know until they can quantify the effect," said Leskela.

"The only way to know that or get information would be in the next day or two, to have access to that information on what has taken place and then do the adjustments and make the forecasts."

Japanese electronic giants Sony and Toshiba told CNN it was too early to gauge the long-term impact of the airplane attacks in the U.S. on future performance.

"At this point, Sony is not in a position to make a comment about how this will impact our long term exports," said Sony spokesperson Gerald Cavanaugh.

"It will impact operations in short term, though," he added. "Domestic flights in the area have been cancelled. The Sony office in New York City is closed."