Apple supplier Foxconn Technology Group, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has warned that technology supply chains are being disrupted by the coronavirus epidemic.
“As we are moving ahead with the reopening of mainland China manufacturing complexes in a relatively cautious manner, this will indeed have a negative impact on full-year revenues,” Hon Hai, the group’s Taipei-listed flagship company, said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Earlier in the week Apple had issued a financial alert that disruption from the virus outbreak would cause it’s revenues to fall short in the current quarter. The company said it was “experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated”, leading it to warn that it will not meet the revenue guidance issued at the end of last month. The manufacturing problems will shine a spotlight on vulnerabilities in the tightly co-ordinated network of suppliers that Apple has built to support the iPhone.
Others grappling with the supply chain disruptions include Samsung, which has begun flying electronic components for its latest Galaxy phones from China to its factories in Vietnam, and LG Electronics, another South Korean technology manufacturer, which produces mostly low to mid-end smartphones in Vietnam.
