Long-term damage • Companies move production lines from the country where the fatal epidemic erupted • including Apple, Google and Tesla, whose new model launch is expected to be delayed

• Huge companies abandon China following corona virus // Photo Archive: IP

Increasingly pervasive: it has long been not the butterfly effect, but more like a tsunami of the Corona epidemic, centered in Wuhan city. The waves from Hubei province of China are spreading all over the world, and technology companies are closing factories, offices and stores, not just in China.

Flights are canceled, non-essential travel is rejected, and the real test of the continuity of the injury to the business sector will begin tomorrow, February 10, the date set for the return of tens of millions of Chinese to work, at the end of the extended Chinese New Year holiday, and not for joyous reasons.

It is now estimated that the effects on the economic sector are not only in the short term - but also in the medium and long term. The major global tech companies have stopped operating in manufacturing plants in China, including Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Samsung.

Google has also closed its operations in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and is scheduled to resume tomorrow, after the weekend there, but in the current situation it is doubtful that it will. The stores of these companies in China are due to open only on February 15, and this too seems unlikely now.

Disruptions everywhere

Amazon is the only one that has not stopped operations in its offices in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but it does not allow its employees to make non-essential trips to China and within China itself. Employees returning from a work trip are required to stay in their homes for 14 days and work from home before returning to work.

Experts estimate that the medical closure will also lead to disruptions in the supply of raw materials, appliance parts, cars and other components manufactured in China. Because its employees cannot return to the production line, Foxconn, which produces most of Apple's phones and AirPods headphones, does not renew the work at its two factories in China.

Facebook also stopped receiving invitations to the virtual reality set Oculus because of production delays. Tesla has announced a one to two week delay in the delivery of Model 3 electric cars it produces in China. According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese companies such as Xiaomi, Lenovo, Wawi and Opu have also announced production delays.

Wawi, which has most of its factories in Guandong, may return to regular operations without delays as early as tomorrow, but not all companies are in a situation. However, it has postponed the developer conference scheduled for this week and is scheduled to take place in two weeks, assuming the restrictions are lifted by then, of course. The second week of the League of Legends competition was discontinued on January 26 and no date has yet to be renewed.