China shutting down PCB manufacturing?

Archive BatchPCB
1

The news has reported that some factories in China will be [shut down for the next 9 weeks (LA Times)

I just got an email from Advanced Circuits with the following text:

For our Printed Circuit Board customers using Chinese vendors, please be aware of the following air quality policy announcement from Chinese authorities:

In preparation for the Olympics, China has announced a factory shutdown for 9 weeks to clear smog and improve air quality in a 200 kilometer radius of Beijing. The shutdown begins July 17th and will extend until September 20th. Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shandong provinces are affected by the shutdown.

If air quality does not improve before the start of the Olympics, there may be an expansion of the shutdown. There are concerns there could also be a bottleneck at two main ports.

(And then it continues with a sales pitch)

Will my recent PCB order be halted due to the Olympics?](Clearing Beijing's air, roads)

2

Gold Phoenix is located in Wuhan, over 1000 km from Beijing; the shutdown area would have to be increased enormously to directly affect them (although I suppose the “bottleneck at two main ports” could still be a factor in the delivery time).

3

You can expect that the shutdown will affect factories well outside the specified radius. They will be busy taking on the extra work, and might not have time for the onesie-twosie proto jobs.

4

Well as a Chinese, yes, there’s such policy for a certain area around Beijing. But for our south China region there’s no shutting down at all.