The research firm has predicted that numerous product categories, from smartphones and smartwatches to laptops and monitors, they will have supply problems at least until the fourth month of the year because of the Coronavirus.
The severity of supply problems varies depending on the category, but the fact is that as the factories of the main manufacturers are still closed, and more have been closed, inventories are beginning to have stock problems to meet demand. of products.
Those who take the worst part in this latest report are smartwatches, as the supply forecast is 12.1 million compared to the 14.4 million initially planned, almost 16% less. Televisions are the ones that "have the best", since the forecast is now to provide 46.6 million, compared to the 48.8 million initially planned, "only" 4.5% less.
The rest of the categories fall between these two extremes, such as laptops with a 12.3% lower supply (It is the second that falls most after smartwatches), video consoles with 10.1% less and monitors, which fall 5.2% compared to the initial forecast. Remember that we are talking about forecasts, and that it depends on how things develop – and especially the outbreak of Coronavirus – these figures can vary, possibly worse.
This is what TrendForce has said regarding the supply of laptops:
“All manufacturers that participate in supply chains are the most affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. These companies are losing many business days of work and production, and once they have returned to work, they have done it in a staggered and gradual way, so that even now they are not 100% in production. In addition, raw materials are still scarce, so productivity is plummeted. ”
It is basically the same as we already knew: factories have been stopped by order of the Chinese government, and that is causing all companies that had not stockpiled beforehand are suffering from serious production problems. With roads cut and logistics not working, they cannot even receive the raw materials needed to manufacture their products, so things are getting worse.
What TrendForce has not mentioned is the memory manufacturers. It is known that they were having the same problems as the others, but it seems that in anticipation of the high demand for the Chinese New Year they had a lot of accumulated stock without selling, and this is precisely what is serving them to be able to meet, at least moment, with the demand for products.
We will see what happens in the next few weeks, for now the stocks hold and it seems that every time the rate of virus infections is detrimental, with many of those affected already cured. Anyway, the Chinese government seems quite cautious and will not cease its efforts to prevent the spread of the disease until it is fully controlled, and since these stocks are finite, they could finally end up breaking if the barre is not lifted in time. to resume production normally.
