It shows just how fragile the electronic infrastructure is. The big quake in Taiwan in '99 killed one major computer company. Packard Bell had just signed contracts with Radio Shack to supply computers for the Christmas season, catalogs were printed with the firm prices. Then the earthquake hit and knocked out 1/2 of the chip making capacity on the planet for up to 2 months. The price of memory chips went up 600% in 3 days. PB was faced with losing maybe $100 or more per unit on at least 1 million units so they pulled the plug.
With China at only 15 percent of comm capacity it is sure to have an impact on inventories in the near future. Most seriously affected will likely be computers and related parts and accessories as these are stocked on a just-in-time basis with most of it air freighted to North America. You can expect some short term price increases and shortages of components such as memory and hard drives especially.
Glad I'm out of the business. This may have some impact on the impending release of Vista from Microsoft too.
With China at only 15 percent of comm capacity it is sure to have an impact on inventories in the near future. Most seriously affected will likely be computers and related parts and accessories as these are stocked on a just-in-time basis with most of it air freighted to North America. You can expect some short term price increases and shortages of components such as memory and hard drives especially.
Glad I'm out of the business. This may have some impact on the impending release of Vista from Microsoft too.
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