The global surge in energy and commodity prices had a bigger financial impact on developing Asia’s big companies in the first quarter than Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, results and trading updates suggest.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest technology company by sales, China’s Guangzhou Auto and Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of semiconductors, were among companies acting as a barometer of the possible impact of component shortages from Japan.

However, most companies said the impact would be felt largely in the second quarter. The March 11 earthquake happened only three weeks before the end of the first quarter for most companies, which meant that shortages of Japanese parts had little impact until April.