Olympic shutdown gets into place

Getty Images via DaylifeFactories are shutting down and traffic will be dramatically limited later this month as a large number of regions is preparing for the Beijing Olympics and the Paralympics that will last up to September. Mainstream media, like here Business Week, are reporting the fallout now, and dedicated weblogs like Allroadsleadtochina, have been warning already for months.
Like many measures in China, the official announcements have come pretty late and the effects are not yet clear. Most measures do not seem limited to the Beijing-Tianjin region, but do expand to other Olympic cities like Shenyang and Qingdao. Shanghai is not mentioned, but might also be involved.
In Beijing up to 70 percent of the local traffic might be stopped for two months, while non-local traffic will have even a harder time entering the region.
In Business Week:

The shutdown could even affect consumers abroad. "We will see a different mix of goods or even empty shelves" at some U.S. and European retailers, says Bryan Larkin, a marketing director at GXS, a Gaithersburg (Md.) consultant that helps companies streamline their supply chains. "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." He declined to name them, citing confidentiality agreements.

Fireworks in the US because of July 4th might already face a shortage because of earlier limitation in China to curtain the transportation of dangerous good and accidents in firework factories.