It's "Official" - First Round of Olympic Shutdowns are Coming

[Allroads]

Was just forwarded an article from Reuters entitled China to shut factories ahead of Olympics-sources where the lead paragraph says:

Authorities in Tangshan, an industrial city in Hebei province north of Beijing, have ordered 267 firms to shut down operations by July 8 to improve air quality ahead of the Olympics, government and industry sources said on Friday.

Update: I just found an article by Businessweek China: An Olympic Loss for Industry where the following quote came right off the screen:

"It's now too late to try to get additional freight, too late to move production, too late to stockpile," he says. "There are some very large, well-known companies that were caught completely off guard on this."

to read more on this story, feel free to review my previous posts :

• The Olympic Effect on China’s Steel Industry: Rising Prices
• DHL’s Beijing Olympics Memo & Contingency Plan
• Traffic Disruptions in Beijing Coming: I Hope You Listened to Me
• UPDATED: If You Are Manufacturing In Beijing, Tianjin, or Shanghai. PAY ATTENTION
• East China Province Gives Ultimatum to Polluters Before Olympics
• This is NOT a Test: Beijing Announces Plan to Close Factories, Stop Construction for Olympics
• Regulations in China: Are You Prepared? Are Ready? Are You OK?
• Are You Stocked Up For the Olympics? Have You Assessed Your Suppliers Yet? Booked Your Vessels Yet?