Faced with the return of Covid-19 to the city of Shanghai, the Chinese government has decided to apply its “Zero Covid” strategy to the letter by confining the agglomeration and its outskirts. Problem, the region is home to the production sites of many subcontractors working for Apple, Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo or even Microsoft. What to fear a shortage of laptops in the coming weeks.
If in France, it is time for the masks to be dropped and for a return to an almost normal life, the world is not yet rid of Covid-19. In China, the country must deal with an upsurge in cases in the Shanghai city area, in particular because of the Omicron variant. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese authorities have decided to apply their “Zero Covid” strategy to the letter by reconfining the city and its outskirts.
The movements of each worker are subject to verification, while teleworking is adopted massively when possible. Only, the application of this zero tolerance in the face of the epidemic could have “serious repercussions and seriously harm the global electronics industry”. This is what our colleagues from the Commercial Times site in Taiwan reveal.
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Covid-19 threatens laptop production
In effect, kunshan city is precisely in the area concerned by the sanitary measures. However, it is here that many production sites of the companies are located Compal, Pegatron and Wistron. These companies share one thing in common: they all work as subcontractors for major tech brands such as Apple, Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft or even Dell and Xiaomi. Mostly, these three Chinese companies manufacture laptops of the manufacturers mentioned above.
Note that the containment also impacts the activities of AUO and Nanya, companies respectively specializing in the manufacture of monitors and semiconductors. For the moment, the production capacities of these factories are strongly impacted and reduced, and the situation will continue as long as the health measures remain in force. According to Commercial Times, the end of the quarantine is set for April 6, 2022.
If the number of contaminations does not drop enough in the eyes of the authorities, they could very well extend this closure. In fact, the stocks of portable PCs could very quickly be emptied almost everywhere in the world, while conversely, prices could explode. This is not yet the case for the moment, but the risk is real. As a reminder, the shortage of components continues to disrupt the activities of many companies around the world. This is the case of the automobile group Stellantis, which was forced to close its factory in Russia because of the shortage. Moreover, the main builder of Russian tanks has also been forced to suspend production for lack of components.
