Following reports of potential production delays on iPhone components and even shipping delays for products like the Mac Pro, DigiTimes reports today that global notebook shipments could fall up to 36 percent in the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
This includes Apple supplier Quanta Computer, which produces Apple's MacBook line. Suppliers like Quanta have moved volume production to facilities in Taiwan to meet client needs, but a component shortage is believed to continue to affect shipment numbers. This shortage is due to suppliers who are prevented from going to work following the outbreak.
This component shortage is predicted to cause disruptions to the supply chain in March. Meanwhile, Quanta is said to be moving to accelerate volume production at its new facilities in Taiwan in order to fulfill rush shipments to its clients in the United States.
Previously, global notebook shipments were predicted to fall about 17 percent in Q1 2020, but that number has been increased to between 29 and 36 percent as of DigiTimes' latest research. "Severe labor and components shortages and stagnant logistics arising from the coronavirus outbreak are derailing supply chain in China, which commands over 90% of global notebook production."
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Top Rated Comments
(View all)Some haven't heard from their suppliers in China for weeks. If they send mail or phone, they receive boiler-plate answers that all will be well and they start production next week (which may or may not be true).
For fear of repercussions, nobody wants to diverge from the party-line over phone or email.
It could very well be the Black Swan, the straw that broke the camel's back, that ends up sending us down the rabbit-hole of a very deep recession.
Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory seems to start producing again, they have workers there at least. So that's a good sign. But Shenzen is still in lockdown. And so is of course Hubei.
We will see.
But this ain't gonna be pretty.
Isn't it obvious they BOTH matter?Place of production does not matter / The place where the design and software was created is important.
This is also positive because as companies finally wake up and start withdrawing from relying on China, the totalitarian gov. will finally lose its economical grip and hopefully friendlier gov. like India and Indonesia might get the benefit. I am sorry for the people of China, but we can not fix their problems for them.
The problem is no public company is able to think beyond the current quarter. A CEO who spends a little more on labor today in the hope it will save the company from a problem like this will be fired very quickly. A CEO who puts all their eggs in the cheapest basket can shirk off blame for something like this which was "beyond their control".This might indicate that maybe...just maybe we shouldn't be relying on China as hard as we do for their cheap labor.
GM wen't bankrupt because of short term greed. Ford was more responsible and weathered the storm on their own. So the government bailed out GM using everyone's tax money including Ford's, and GM is the bigger more successful company. Our entire system punishes healthy sustainable behaviour.