Last week, we made the case that tech manufacturing was uniquely vulnerable to pandemic problems. But just a week later, the news is even worse.

Us sea imports from China down more than 50 percent in the first three weeks of March. Wistron Corp, which does a lot of work for Apple, boasted last week it could move as much as half of its business outside Chinese borders within a year.

It’s going to be a lot faster and Messier because of the pandemic. Companies are scrambling to stand up a whole new set of factories.

There have n’t been any intense shortages yet, but mines are having a lot of trouble getting shipments out. The result will be a lot less lithium for manufacturers, which could be a huge problem for anything with a battery.