COVID-19: India pauses phone manufacturing for major brands

With the spread of COVID-19 continuing to impact business around the world, we take a look at the mobile phone industry, the latest to be hit by the pandemic.

With the current total of cases within India reaching 513, with 11 deaths, multiple states within India have issued lockdowns - like many others around the world - to curb the speed of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). 

The effect of these lockdowns again like many others have resulted in the closure of production activities. In particular, within India, this includes a large amount of smartphone manufacturers present in the region - the second-largest smartphone market.

Those who have closed their factories so far include Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and LG for various different lengths of time.

Samsung - The popular brand has currently put on hold production in its Noida factory - the world’s biggest mobile manufacturing facility - until tomorrow, 25 March.  

Oppo and Vivo - Joining Samsung, it was reported that the Chinese phone manufacturers were also closing their facilities unit 25 March.

LG - More recently, LG announced that it is pausing its production temporarily for its two facilities in India until the end of the month.

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Xiaomi - Xiaomi, India’s top phone maker, has announced that it will be following the lockdown order of the authorities. “Each facility such as corporate office, warehouse, service centre, Mi Home, and manufacturing plant will abide by the lockdown orders. In the meantime, we will vigilantly monitor the situation round the clock,” commented Xiaomi in a company statement.

Motorola - Owned by Lenovo, Motorola will also be shutting down its operations, however, there is no current time frame stated.

Already experiencing a slump in the market, with shipments decreasing by 38% in February, which is expected to continue as a result of the recent shutdowns of factories. However, while this might have a negative impact on revenues and exports, it is positively ensuring the safety and health of the country. 

While the smartphone manufacturing industry is being affected by the pandemic, many within the manufacturing of automobiles are continuing their production in other regions, including Mercedes-Benz and Tesla. 

To find out if the manufacturing industry is prepared for remote work, check out our recent article on the topic.

While there is a lot of uncertainty and negative impacts surrounding the pandemic, with these uncertain times the world is banding together to help in the fight against the virus. 

Around the world Car manufacturers are providing their manufacturing services to provide the much needed medical supplies that the world needs.

Those car manufacturers include BYD, who commented in a company statement that the much needed supplies of medical supplies will “help alleviate severe shortages that have affected hospitals and agencies across China in the face of the global COVID-19 outbreak.”

Other shortages include ventilators. Currently, the UK has over 2,700 cases of COVID-19, with only 5,000 ventilators. Auto manufacturer Nissan is assisting a UK consortium, to help with the development of basic ventilator prototypes.

Total recoveries to date: 103,415 of 292,952

For more information on manufacturing topics - please take a look at the latest edition of Manufacturing Global.

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