Microsoft joins list of tech giants warning coronavirus could hurt sales

Microsoft officials say that the company is facing significant delays in its supply chain due to closed factories in China amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The officials said the stall in some manufacturing companies could affect sales on computer products, including tech gadgets such as Surface tablets, the BBC reported on Thursday.

The tech company said factories are beginning to reopen throughout China, but the process is taking longer than the company had expected, leading to worries about the immediate supply of critical components that go into making a number of Microsoft products.

Microsoft is just one of many tech firms that rely on Chinese goods for parts. Several of them, including Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, have also put travel restrictions in place, halting employee travel to China.

A leading supplier of Apple, Foxconn, said their factory is working to bring workflow back up to its standard pace but not without proper safety measures taken for the workers, according to the BBC.

“While our facilities in China have been delayed in their return to normal operations, our facilities in a number of other markets, including Vietnam, India, and Mexico, are running at full capacity and expansion plans for some of our global facilities are being rolled out,” Foxconn said in a statement.

The company’s closest factory to the Hubei province, near the ground zero of the coronavirus outbreak, is located 470 miles away in the city of Chongqing.

Last week, China reported a total of 394 new infections and 136 deaths through the end of Wednesday, the lowest rate in weeks. However, researchers warn of the possibility of a rebound in outbreaks that could drive infection rates back up.

Since December 2019, there have been more than 80,000 confirmed cases of the virus, with more than 2,600 fatalities as a result of the deadly infection.