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Comment by mm321 | Hacker News Reader

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52104978 i think this analysis on the possible long term effects of this crisis is more usefull. They say that the perceived risk of ordering parts from east asia is now much higher and that they will likely prefer local producers because of that perceived risk. (don't know if that is practical, as things nowadays are much more specialized)

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Covid won’t do much to supply chains.

China’s decisions regarding intellectual property and trade secrets (IP), however, haven’t changed and are the reason my (large) employer has stopped sending anything sensitive there. We still sell to China but any IP entering the country is assumed as forfeit.

Other countries are becoming more competitive even outside of IP considerations.

I think we’ll see more and more “the Chinese economy” and “the US Et al economy” but mainly divided by IP. Covid will be a minor blip on that scene.

It's easy to see that a lot of countries will be rethinking their supply chains. Especially everything concerning the medical industry.

yeah but its also easy to see capitalism deciding that the super cheap near slave labor in china make those products much cheaper, why buy local when it can be gotten for half the price +- 2 days delivery.

I don't really follow the perception though. It doesn't seem like the globalized supply chain has actually been hit by the pandemic - travel restrictions have universally exempted trade.

Globalized supply chains have been devastated by the pandemic. Large numbers of shippers are projected to go bankrupt because their loads have plummetted.

All supply chains have been devastated. The question is whether globalized supply chains are doing worse than local ones.

i guess it now depends on each government - is a state able and willing to prop up its industry in times of crisis or not?

That goes in direct contradiction to what you just said above. Either global supply chains are devastated or they are not. You very clearly said that global supply chains were not hit.

Fair, I was imprecise. My point is, companies that exist solely to maintain the supply chain aren't doing great, but that seems to mostly be because so many people aren't producing stuff - as far as I can tell the stuff that is produced is making it around the world with no problems. I've found no shortage of the things I consume that are produced in Asia.

Try ordering a couple of thousand Rome servers from Dell right now and you might be surprised.

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