Matti Robinson
7 Apr 2020 14:22
World's largest electronics contract manufacturer, Foxconn, has been one of the most carefully followed industry stories in the COVID-19 timeline. The company which manufactures much of our gadgets in China was obviously affected by the novel coronavirus, but how is it doing now?
It is hard to get reliable and trust-worthy information from China in terms of their coronavirus action. However, production facilities inevitably tell us how much has the nation returned to normal, at least in one industry.
The free fall in manufacturing seems to be a thing of the past. According to Reuters, Foxconn reports a 7.7% decline in March year-over-year. The 347.7 billion TWD ($11.55 billion) revenue is fairly comparable to the previous year's 376.6 billion ($12.51 billion).
Considering the circumstances, a lot of industries would take a sub-8 percent hit to their revenue.
The quarterly revenue, January to March, combined to a 12 percent fall from the previous year. The most significant drop was in February, which amounted to -23.7%.
This suggests that China seems to have fought through the worst, at least when it comes to the first wave of COVID-19, but a lot depends now on how electronics companies success in the west.
Manufacturing doesn't seem to be an issue at this point. However, if demand for iPhones and other electronics is going to plummet, it is going to not only affect revenues and profits of Apple but the Chinese manufacturing as well.
It remains to be seen how large of an economic impact coronavirus will have in our gadget spending in the coming months. Perhaps you could ask yourself whether you are spending your hard-earned money later this year to upgrade your smartphone, laptop or other technology?