Page 4 - HW MARCH 2020

editorial
It’s gone viral!
NEWS OF THE Coronavirus (aka COVID- 19) broke on 31 December and although that seems a long time ago now, plenty has happened in those eight weeks as I write this.
Initially, Chinese New Year masked some of the broader implications but then, as we learned that China’s workers who’d returned to their home towns
for the holiday would not be allowed to return to work for an extended period, first travellers and then our exporters and then importers started working through the implications of their supply chain coming to an extended standstill...
Related to all of the above, first we heard about kitchen & bath show KBB Birmingham UK encouraging Chinese exhibitors to take part in an online showcase of their products, rather than actually turn up in person (or not turn up at all, as the case may be)...
Then came the late postponement of the Eisenwarenmesse. Having on 18 Feb said it was all go, by 26 Feb it wasn’t...
Closer to home, NZTE, along with the many Kiwi importers of Chinese- made products, has been watching developments closely, in particular the rate at which Chinese workers are returning to their factories.
At the time of writing, NZTE was reporting that China’s economic activity was restarting but still patchy and that New Zealand companies that rely on Chinese manufacturing would be “keeping a nervous eye” on their supply chain.
Take Jaeco, with that brand’s products nowadays coming out of Shanghai... I ask James Seabright has the Coronavirus impacted on business? Not so far, he says, ample provision having been made as usual for the annual Chinese New Year hiatus.
However, as James readily admits, given how quickly the situation went from local to global, there are just way too many unknowns to second guess what may or may not happen at this point in time.
Mitre 10, with its China-based sourcing office, offered this: “The situation
is continuing to evolve and we are monitoring it closely. We expect there will be impacts and as our international suppliers return to work we are working closely with them to understand what
the impacts will be and manage them as best we can. The wellbeing of the people and teams in China is of course the first priority, and this is always front of mind.”
Offering a longer view, NZIER has said that the combination of the Coronavirus outbreak and drought is expected to deliver “a short sharp shock to the New Zealand economy”.
Having been talking up a flat March quarter, it also admits: “It is early days and there is a large degree of uncertainty over the magnitude and duration of the effects from the coronavirus outbreak.”
Steve Bohling, editor steveb@mpm.nz
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