Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, Coronavirus, the supply chains of the global firms and markets have been disrupted significantly.
Especially, tech companies have been among the greatest victims of Coronavrius. From Apple to relatively smaller technology firms, the disruption of their supply chains – mainly the lack of components of production – makes them more susceptible to hardship.
To demonstrate the current economy stagnation around the world, Apple seems to be a compelling one. Widely known as a major global tech company, even Apple has conceded it would not be able to meet its revenue target of $63-76 billion in the next quarter of 2020. As apple manufactures the majority of its products in China, the exponential spread of Coronavirus continues to obscure the financial forecast of Apple. Multiple firms and factories of Apple currently located in China have halted their production, and even the offline Apple stores have decided to close. Therefore, their disrupted production lines, and in general, those of all other IT companies, have incurred remarkably high costs: supply shortages, potentially leading to a decline in sales as well as rising unemployment level of workers due to the closure of firms and shops. Albeit the current situation, press release hopes that Apple could manage to recoup relatively soon.
Furthermore, the economic impacts of Cornavirus are not solely bound to IT firms. In fact, various sectors such as retail, and local shops are also facing a decline in sales associated with a decline in supply. For example, Starbucks said it has closed about half of its 4,100 shops in China. While, other companies such as Facebook and HSBC have instead forced employees to work from home, to prevent further disruption of their business.
Indeed, these examples can not suffice to demonstrate the global hardships all citizens and businesses are facing- and the actual scale of the impact is immeasurable, along with the business uncertainty which will make the situation worse. Hence, sensible and immediate solutions should be implemented in any ways to tackle this devastating epidemic – to save those countless people suffering from various aspects.
