China: Tech Firm Ericsson Pulls Out Of Big Trade Show Due To Coronavirus

Wireless equipment maker Ericsson is pulling out of the industry’s top annual trade event due to the coronavirus outbreak, while automakers are considering whether to reopen factory lines in China.

Tech: Ericsson, one of the main suppliers of wireless networks and a rival to China’s Huawei, is pulling out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, this month.

The Swedish company said that because the show draws thousands of visitors, even if the risk is low, the company cannot guarantee the health and safety of its employees and visitors.

The organisers said Ericsson’s decision will hurt the event but they do not plan to cancel it. Huawei recently said this week it would still attend.

How the virus is affecting global business:

Automakers: Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that sales in China in January by the company and its local partners fell 11.8 per cent from a year earlier to 118,143 vehicles due to the virus outbreak and the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday.

Nissan said earlier it was considering reopening most of its factories in China on Monday but would wait until at least February 14 for facilities in and around Wuhan, the city at the center of the outbreak.

Toyota said it was keeping its factories in China closed for an extra week, through February 16, and will decided then whether to resume production.

Toyota Motor Corp. has 12 plants in China, including four vehicle assembly plants. Honda Motor Co. said its three auto-assembly plants in Wuhan would stay closed through February 13.

Retailing: Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo Co. said it has closed 350 stores, or about half, of its 750 stores in China, to comply with shutdowns of public transportation and closures of malls.

Parent company Fast Retailing says about 20 per cent of its sales come from China. British firm Burberry, which gets about 40 per cent of its revenue from China, says the impact has been significant.

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It shut 24 of 64 stores in China, and told the FT footfall had dropped as much as 80 per cent. The impact in Hong Kong is bigger than from the protests, which had halved sales there in the last quarter.