A supply-chain report predicts that laptop production in China will be severely hit by the coronavirus outbreak and that global shipments for this quarter will be down by anything between 29% and 36%.
Quanta, which makes most of Apple’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, has contingency plans in place, but these are not expected to be sufficient…
Digitimes reports that while Quanta and others are shifting more assembly work to Taiwan, the problem is that they will soon run out of Chinese-made components.
It had previously been suggested that laptop production would be 17% down, but the report says that things are already far worse than expected.
Taiwanese notebook ODMs have already resumed assembly operations in China, but risks of supply chain disruptions in March are mounting, as inventories of many components will run out by end-February with many of their supporting suppliers still awaiting approvals from local governments to reopen their plants, according to industry sources.
Apple’s primary iPhone assembler, Foxconn, has also been struggling with production levels, with its biggest plant only 10% staffed as of last week.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which describes the coronavirus as ‘public enemy number one,’ published its latest situation report yesterday. This says there were more than 1,200 new confirmed cases in the preceding 24 hours, taking the total to 51,857 – the vast majority of them in China. There have been 1,666 confirmed deaths.
