Since news first broke of the coronavirus outbreak, China has been actively trying to curb the spread of the disease by ordering all but a few companies to be closed until further notice.
The major industrial hub of Suzhou, situated in the northwest of Shanghai, has been forced to close its businesses until the beginning of the second week of February due to its proximity to the city of Wuhan. The Samsung business site located in Suzhou has halted production at their factories for the time being, but are positive that business would continue as usual eventually.
China’s own homegrown tech companies like ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi have had to reduce productivity in their R & D hubs based in the country. Global technology supply chains are more heavily connected now than any other generation before it, so much so that any erratic behaviour in its international trade network could easily cause a major fallout in the industry.
GlobalData’s Nishant Singh, head of technology and telecoms data reiterated this reality by stating that “the manufacturing of these devices and components is via an intricate supply chain which traverses the region, and hence a prolonged outbreak can drastically affect the manufacturing obligations - this will in-turn impact the product release roadmap of these technology giants.”
