Economic impact of China earthquake

The always informative AllRoadsLeadToChina has an excellent post with his first thoughts on how the earthquake might impact the economic picture:

First, the hardest hit areas have historically developed slower from an economical perspective as they lacked the natural export markets that the cities on the east coast have. However, the area of Mianyang is a major city of Sichuan, and the role of this area to the southwest market was becoming more important.

So, from a manufacturing perspective I do not see many industries that will see a significant impact at the 1st and 2nd tier, however where we will need to wait and see will be on the raw material front. this is a resource rich area, and it is possible that this catastrophe will hinder some supply lines.

Second, great expense and resources will go into the rescue efforts, clean up, and rebuilding, and this and that means that resources will be diverted. energy, gas, trucks, rail, etc. will all be diverted to support the efforts, and that may mean some disruptions in the middle of the country.. some on the east coast.

Read the whole thing. The company I currently work for does not have any business in Sichuan so I can’t comment on how the earthquake has or might affect companies at a micro-economic level. As most of the major coastal ports are quite far away from the epicenter of the quake I have not heard of any damage, delays, or problems with the daily port operations. If anyone else who sources from Sichuan or exports there has more information, please feel free to sound off in the comments.