Taipei-based Foxconn, which is a key parts supplier for Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, on Tuesday announced that its plants in mainland China would resume normal production by the end of the month. Numerous factories across China were forced to shut down in late January due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, or COVID-19.
However, uncertainties remained, and the shutdown’s impact on full-year earnings was still unknown, company chairman Liu Young-Way said during an earnings call with investors.
There could be a significant, negative year-on-year impact on the company’s core business segments, Liu warned, and it was even possible the first quarter of 2020 would not be profitable.
The impact of the shutdown isn’t limited to China, the ground zero for the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
The coronavirus impact could hit global supply chains for all products in mid-March and force thousands of companies to slow down or even temporarily shut assembly and manufacturing plants in Europe and the United States, The Harvard Business Review predicted last week.
The most vulnerable companies likely will be those that rely on China to supply key components, and it could take months or longer for supply chain problems to be resolved fully.
“There is a great intertwining with participants in the supply chain,” said Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint TechnologiesAssociates.
“Tech will be impacted more than other industries,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Health officials have reported more than 100,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide as of Friday. There have been 3,300 deaths, with about 300 outside mainland China. Thirteen of those were in Washington state. COVID-19 has been detected so far in at least 83 countries.
Break in the Supply Chain
Consumers around the world are already seeing empty shelves in retail stores, and products from China likely will be in high demand. Shortages will disproportionately affect the tech sector, as tech firms typically do not keep large inventories of parts on hand.
“The COVID-19 virus is impacting the global electronics supply chain,” said Roger Entner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics.
“To keep costs low and make products as affordable as possible, every company in the supply chain has switched to a just-in-time production model, minimizing if not eliminating stockpiles,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Most factories have supplies for only one day of production, as stockpiles are ultimately an inefficient use of capital,” Entner said. “Factory space is better used to produce something rather than store something.”
This approach works as long as factories remain staffed and products flow from one facility to another, but even a small disruption in the supply chain can impact a company and, with it, the whole sector. This was seen in Japan after the 2011 earthquake, and it took years for some firms to recover fully. Some businesses were shuttered for good.
The truth is that the tech industry runs on such tight margins that an ample supply of parts wouldn’t be a solution to the problem.
“Even if companies wanted, they simply don’t have the storage capacity,” explained Entner. “The bottom line is that factories are idle until supplies are rolling in.”
Short-Term Problem
Consumers will have to wait for new products to arrive, which could be an issue in today’s instant gratification society. Shoppers have become accustomed to products being a click away online.
“While there are disruptions currently in China-based manufacturing, I expect that situation will eventually be resolved,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
However, shortages could impact companies in other ways, including brand loyalty.
“Depending on the length of the disruption, companies could be severely disrupted,” King told TechNewsWorld.
That could be particularly true for Apple, which depends heavily on iPhone sales, warned King.
Xenophobic reactions — even overreactions — are a problem. Outlandish posts circulating online suggest that products from China could be spreading the virus. Health officials have stressed that the coronavirus could not be active long enough on a surface for it to be transmitted by touching a product that came from China, even from a coronavirus epicenter such as Guangdong or Zhejiang.
Despite this fact, the outbreak could make some companies reconsider business partnerships with some international firms, a move that isn’t likely to help the supply chain issues.
“It isn’t appropriate for companies to be wary of specific countries, but the coronavirus could lead many companies to develop relationships with manufacturers in multiple countries,” added King.
Global Shutdown of Tech Events
The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the coronavirus a global pandemic, but the tech world has been very proactive in addressing the issue. So far, more than a dozen conferences and trade events have been canceled or postponed.
Among them are the Adobe Summit, Black Hat Asia 2020, Facebook F8, and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The latter is the largest event to be completely canceled, but some events are still being held online. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, and other tech companies announced they were pulling out of the upcoming SXSW conference in Austin, Texas.
It isn’t just in the tech world that events are being postponed, or canceled — or in some cases, heavily modified. The National College Players Association has called upon the NCAA to consider holding the upcoming March Madness basketball tournament in arenas without fans in attendance.
There’s debate over whether such extreme measures are actually required.
“First of all, while the coronavirus has killed 3,000 people on a global scale, the CDC estimates that as many as 56,000 people die from the flu or flu-like illness each year. We need to get this in perspective,” suggested technology industry entrepreneur and consultant Lon Safko.
“The worldwide panic over coronavirus has been exaggerated and has already caused significant actual damage to the global economy,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Hotel reservations around the world are being canceled along with airline reservations, while restaurants in many destination cities are empty, and conferences, expos, concerts, and many large public gatherings are being canceled at an alarming rate,” Safko added.
“I congratulate the Chinese government and other regulatory agencies around the world for taking the necessary precautions by quarantining towns, ships, and flights in the hope of controlling the spread of this disease,” he said. “We should by no means take this lightly, but we do need to develop a calmer, rational perspective.”
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