London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

How to prepare the tech supply chain for the next outbreak: ‘You just can’t’

How to prepare the tech supply chain for the next outbreak: ‘You just can’t’

Electronics manufacturing guru Liam Casey says the coronavirus proves there are some events you cannot plan for. The global health crisis is generating fresh questions about whether the technology industry relies too much on China

Over the last 24 years, Liam Casey, an electronics manufacturing guru, has guided numerous brands through the intricacies of the Chinese supply chain. Today, he argues nobody could have prepared for the events of the past two months.

As the coronavirus inflicts incalculable damage to public health and economic growth around the world, every instinct of global business is being urgently questioned.

Casey is the perfect guy to answer the alarm. He is the founder and chief executive of PCH International, a product development and supply chain services company with core operations in San Francisco and Shenzhen, and – as Fortune magazine once described him – “the one you call for a factory connection, the guy you hire for your packaging design and the one you ask about FedEx negotiations”. The Atlantic magazine dubbed him “Mr. China”.

A triple whammy of cybersecurity threats, a trade war and the coronavirus outbreak are exacerbating a backlash to globalisation and generating fresh questions about whether the technology industry relies too much on China. It is perhaps not a surprise that Mr China made the case that companies really do not have any other choice.

“Over the last 20 years, a huge amount of the component assembly and manufacturing has been concentrated in China,” Casey said on a video call from his office in San Francisco.

“You can move your final assembly today, but if you want a purely independent supply chain, that is a massive investment. I can’t see any one company that wants to make it.”

The Cork, Ireland, native is one of the most prominent Silicon Valley evangelists for, and beneficiaries of, a globalised supply chain, where products are developed and assembled in Chinese factories and shipped across the ocean, affixed with recognisable American brand names like Apple, Amazon.com and Dell.

Like everyone else, PCH was affected when the coronavirus started to spread on the mainland over the Lunar New Year holiday. Its Shenzhen factory remained closed after the public holiday and reopened only after passing local inspections, two weeks behind schedule.

More than 100,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide. No known cases of infection were found among the 500 employees of PCH in China or the 60 in the US, Casey said. “Today we are back up at 100 per cent capacity, which has been a challenge,” he said.

Other manufacturing operations are still flagging. Foxconn Technology Group – formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry and Apple’s most important contract manufacturing partner – is hoping to return to normal operation in China by the end of this month.

Casey travels frequently to Shenzhen but is now grounded amid the outbreak. PCH has stopped all non-essential employee travel, and the company is using the video conferencing feature in Microsoft Teams to stay in touch.

Casey has had to field panicked calls from clients, who would normally be travelling to China this time of year to oversee prototypes of products for the next holiday season.

Casey recalled one customer telling him last week: “If I don’t get that product to market, all my colleagues, everyone on my team, will be out of work.”

Like the Sars outbreak of 2003, the coronavirus proves there are some events you cannot plan for, according to Casey. “You can strategise against trade wars, but when it comes to something like a global epidemic, you just can’t,” he said. “I was in China during Sars. You had a period where everything stops.”

This time, Chinese authorities moved relatively swiftly to contain the coronavirus, Casey said. But now it has spread far beyond China’s borders, and he worries about the response from other countries: “No one knows whether the worst is over or not.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×