Coronavirus Begins To Disturb Chinese Technological Production

Coronavirus Begins To Disturb Chinese Technological Production

The coronavirus outbreak in China is beginning to affect the global technology industry, with noticeable declines in shipments of devices such as graphics cards and mobile phones.

Asus, Foxconn and Gigabyte  have said that first-quarter shipments of motherboards and graphics cards have fallen more than expected, British media outlet Computing has reported . This decline is explained by the fact that Chinese people avoid public places and shops, while courier delivery and other services have been affected.

Meanwhile, the smartphone market is expected to be affected in two ways: first, with excess inventory in China caused by the sudden and unexpected decline in sales, and second, the halt of new models due to the pause. in supply chains, caused by factory closings, ordered by the Chinese government when the epidemic began.

Huawei, in particular, is likely to be hit hard as it fell back on its home market due to the impact of U.S. sanctions. Asian sources suggest that their sales channels in China have been "paralyzed" as a result of measures taken to contain the spread of the virus.

Foxconn has warned that quarantine measures imposed at the main base where it manufactures Apple iPhones will affect production. Apple is expected to launch a new iPhone at a reduced price earlier this year, and the measures could affect its ability to increase production to meet anticipated demand.

Hon Hai also manufactures products for HP and Sony. Other contract manufacturers operating in China, including Inventec and Quanta, have also been affected. Several factories have been closed and production is expected to restart soon. However, the virus is still spreading and that date may be delayed.

Taiwanese wireless semiconductor company MediaTek also warned that its first-quarter sales are likely to drop by as much as 15 percent. Sources attribute this to the sharp decline in sales in the Chinese smartphone industry.

Game console company Nintendo, meanwhile, has been one of the first companies to publicly warn of an impact on production of its popular Switch console and Joy-Con controllers. The company is considering shifting production from China to Vietnam to ease the shortage, according to Bloomberg.

At the moment, however, the parenthesis is only affecting shipments of Nintendo products to Japan, without the United States and Europe being affected, the company added.