But if China is likely to provide less opportunity for development than expected, the biggest impact on the US industrial real estate market is likely to come from weakening Chinese exports. Though current decreases in US consumer demand have temporarily reduced demand for Chinese-made products, a growing number of analysts see North American, European and Japanese original equipment manufacturers altering sourcing patterns to make themselves less reliant on Chinese manufacturing.

The likely beneficiaries are Mexico, Brazil, Canada and even the US itself, where reduced shipping times make for a more reliable and efficient supply chain. Though the change will not necessarily reduce long-term US real estate needs, it probably will create geographic shifts as fewer exports arrive at West Coast ports and more arrive at East and Gulf coast ports and via inland rail routes.

A new study from Boston-based AMR Research based on a survey of 130 global companies names China as the region that contributes the most risk to global supply chains. The survey identified volatile fuel, energy, and commodity prices as the top risk factors, followed by intellectual property infringement, supplier and internal product quality failure and security breaches.

"This creates a dilemma for many global companies," says AMR vice president of research Noha Tohamy. "On the one hand, they continue to enjoy the advantages of cheaper material costs and labor wages in China as well as the potential to reach vast consumer markets, but on the other they must continually reassess the pros and cons of operating in China,".

According to the report, a growing risk of product quality failure and intellectual property violations is forcing companies to improve the management of product quality across their global supply chains. AMR says survey respondents believe Chinese management practices frequently undermine their own efforts to ensure product reliability. They also say China presents a serious challenge to maintenance of intellectual property rights as one of the world's major copyright and patent violators.

As a result, says the report, more and more companies are taking a new look at near-shore sourcing and manufacturing as a means of keeping better control over production. According to AMR, the top three strategies being used to mitigate supply chain risk are performance-based contracts with suppliers or service providers, closer collaborative relations with trading partners, and dual/multi sourcing strategies or use of redundant suppliers. All of these objectives, survey respondents indicate, can be better achieved outside Asia.