In order to understand how Japan’s earthquake has affected businesses in neighbouring South Korea, take a look at seafood.

　　要想了解日本地震是如何影響鄰邦韓國的商業活動的，不妨看一看海產品。

　　Exports of South Korean seaweed to Japan have soared, with many Japanese fearing that algae harvested off their own coast – a frequent ingredient in miso soup – could be contaminated by radiation seeping from the shattered Fukushima atomic power plant.

　　韓國對日本的海產品出口急劇上升，因為許多日本人擔心，從本國沿海打撈的海藻可能受到了受損的福島(Fukushima)核電站泄露出的放射物的污染。海藻是味噌湯里的常見原料。

　　Similarly, any South Korean company that can produce a substitute for a Japanese product is in a strong position, with international banks expecting oil refiners such as SK Innovation and steelmakers such as Posco to take market share away from Japanese rivals hammered by the quake.

　　同樣，任何一家能夠生產日本產品替代品的韓國公司，如今都處于非常有利的位置——國際銀行預計，SK innovation等煉油商以及浦項制鐵(POSCO)等鋼鐵制造商，將奪走受地震影響的日本競爭對手的市場份額。

　　SK shares have soared by 17 percent since the disaster. Stocks in Posco, which has received additional inquiries about the purchase of about 300,000 tonnes of steel from shipbuilders since the quake, have also jumped 14 percent.

　　在日本災難爆發后，SK股價已飆升17%。浦項制鐵也大漲14%。地震發生以來，浦項制鐵已收到了諸多造船商有關增購鋼鐵的問詢，總計希望購買的數量約為30萬噸。

　　Meanwhile, South Korea’s fishmongers are nervously counting how many mackerel they had put in cold storage before the radiation started leaking from Fukushima. Many must import Norwegian mackerel, incurring higher costs, to please the growing number of shoppers refusing to buy fish caught off Japan.

　　與此同時，福島還未發生放射物泄露時，韓國的魚販們就已開始緊張地計算自己冷凍儲藏了多少鯖魚。許多魚販必須以更高的成本從挪威進口鯖魚，以滿足越來越多不愿購買從日本沿海捕撈的魚類產品的消費者需求。

　　Likewise, many leading South Korean companies are living on their inventories and need to look further afield for alternative suppliers. South Korea ran a $36bn trade deficit with Japan last year. Almost 70 percent of this represented vital components and parts for industry.

　　同樣，許多領先韓國公司也正依靠自己的庫存維持運營，并且要到更遠的地區尋找替代供應商。韓國去年對日貿易赤字為360億美元。其中將近70%都是工業用的關鍵零部件。

　　“Currently, investors are gauging whether the impact of reduced competition from Japan will outweigh the supply bottlenecks of tech companies in Korea and Taiwan, which rely on Japan for a number of key components,” said Brian Kelleher, a vice-president at Citigroup.

　　花旗集團副總裁布賴恩?凱萊赫(Brian Kelleher)表示：“目前，投資者正在評估來自日本的競爭減弱所帶來的影響，是否將超過韓國及臺灣技術公司供應瓶頸的影響。韓國與臺灣的許多關鍵零部件都是從日本進口。”

　　Samsung Electronics and Hynix, the world’s biggest makers of memory chips, have said their inventories remain robust, but Hynix added it was seeking extra supplies from outside Japan.

　　三星電子(Samsung Electronics)和全球最大的存儲芯片制造商海力士(Hynix)表示，它們的庫存仍十分充足，但海力士補充稱，它正從日本以外的其它地區尋找額外供應。

　　“We have asked our local and overseas suppliers to increase their shipments of components as some of our Japanese suppliers were hit by the quake,” said Park Hyun, a senior official.

　　海力士高管Park Hyun表示：“鑒于我們的一些日本供應商受到了地震的影響，我們已要求我們的本土及海外供應商提高零部件出貨量。”