Coronavirus Outbreak Has Not Stopped Production At Some Chinese Tech Firms


02/04/2020



Even though the Chinese government and authorities in various cities and regions have called for companies to shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, there are some tech companies in the country are still continuing with their operations of manufacturing parts and products.
 
For example, earlier this week, the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has announced that it has restarted production of its products such as consumer devices and carrier equipment and has said that its operations are continuing normally.
 
The operations of the company were restarted following a special exemption allowed by the Chinese government for certain critical industries to remain in operation after the Lunar New Year holidays. Beijinh however has given a call to stop all work in certain cities and provinces.
 
For Huawei, most of its production takes place in a city in the southern province of Guangdong, China, a spokesman for the company said.
 
Despite the call for a halt in production and manufacturing, those companies who are outside of the list of exception may also apply for the exemption.
 
Apart from Huawei, there were some companies that have continued production even through the Lunar New year holidays which reflects the degree of critically the Chinese government attaches to some of its domestic tech supply chain.
 
Confirmation that it had not stopped production was issued by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd, which is a state supported flash memory chips manufacturers based in Wuhan - the city which is at the epicenter of the conronavirus outbreak. “At present, production and operations at YMTC are proceeding normally and in an orderly manner,” a company spokesman wrote in a statement to the media. There were no confirmed cases of the virus infection among its employees, said the spokesman of the company, and added that to  ensure the safety of employees, certain isolation measures and partitions had been employed by it.
 
According to a report in the Chinese state media, the chip maker had not even stopped production during the Lunar New Year Holidays.
 
A similar measures was also adopted by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) in terms of production continuity. In order to make sure that its productions continued through the holidays, a work group had been organized by it before the holidays, the company said on the social media. It also had taken steps to ensure that it adhered to the government regulations related to coronavirus to safeguard its employees from being infected.
 
“SMIC needs to ensure that factory production runs 365 days a year and 24 hours a day to meet customers’ fabrication needs,” the company said in the post.
There are production units in Tianjin, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai of the company which is a rival of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
 
The company currently “maintains partial operation” in China and it plans to resume full operation on February 10, said Nina Kao, TSMC’s spokeswoman, in a response to the news agency Reuters.
 
Operations were also ongoing for Changxin Memory Technologies Co Ltd, based in a city close to Wuhan and that of Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, another company making memory chips also in Wuhan, said research firm TrendForce, which tracks the global memory sector.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)