I deal with Asia all day long. That SARS stuff is just an excuse everyone is using. It did not disrupt anything in manufacturing that I know of.
Ask da_cheif if the shoe business had any interruptions in shipments. If there were any, it was due to shoe makers renegotiating steamship company contracts, which expired May 1st, not SARS.
Target was the only large company I know that signed their new shipping contract May 1st, and they took about a 20% hike. The rest of us waited to see who would cry uncle, and everyone ended up crying uncle, including Nike, Walmart, Sears, J.C. Penney, and the other large retailers, importers, and distributors.
I only knew of possibly one week of interruptions in production on any scale, and that was after the May Day holidays in China when some workers from the coastal factories go back home to the countryside for a few days. Some had to be quaranteened when they came back, but that was quite rare.
SARS is a great excuse if you can get away with it. Don't buy it when these clowns use it.
If you're in the tourism business in Asia, it's a legitimate excuse.
Heck, doesn't China's increase in exports of about 17% pretty much dispute all that SARS stuff? |
