- The earliest symptoms occurred on 1st December last year in a single person who has any exposure to the human seafood wholesale market.
- It took just 1 day for the WHO to declared Coronavirus as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
- During the early days, a number of cases doubled every seven days.
One of the fastest spreading viruses that came out from China’s one of human seafood wholesale markets had the potential to disrupt a number of industries, big companies and people associated with it. No one thought that the impacts of coronavirus will be observed almost everywhere.
For a virus that started on the streets, it didn’t take many days to wheel its way to reach to the corporate houses. Recently we covered an article where our renowned beer brand Corona was deeply affected by the coronavirus.
Today, we will take you through a number of industries, brands, and people who are shaken by the impacts of coronavirus outbreak. One good thing is that the number of death cases is not as much as the number was expected to be.
Impacts of Coronavirus on People:
The industry is nothing but a couple of companies working towards a particular product offering or service. And companies are nothing but a group of people managing and leading.
The impacts of the coronavirus outbreak are not limited to common men. Remember the Hurun Global Rich List 2020? Impacts of coronavirus have reached the table of the world’s top 500 billionaires as well.
Here is how the Coronavirus outbreak impacts our billionaires.
- World’s 500 richest people lost around $139 billion from their collective net worth on Monday in the largest single-day drop since Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index started tracking the metric (since October 2016).
- Stocks went drastically low for 7th Coronavirus didn’t directly impact the stock market, but its definitely one of the impacts of coronavirus.
- LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault lost $8.8 billion from his personal net worth in past next week as reduced spending in luxury goods sales.
Impacts of coronavirus knocked down $1.8 billion off the net worth of former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, the richest person in China in the past week.
Bernard Arnault lost $4.8 billion on Monday then another $1.5 billion on Tuesday. But gained $900 million on Wednesday before losing $2.7 billion on Thursday.
Jeff Bezos experienced 2nd highest drop on Monday losing approximately $10 billion since the past week.
Over 83,000 people have been affected by the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak and over 2800 have died. There are confirmed cases on every continent except in Antarctica.
A virus that originated in bats and may have jumped from animals to people at a market, has indirectly affected our billionaires, their businesses and net worth.
It’s a simple chain reaction. When a country and its people are affected by a dangerous disease, why will they go out shopping or why will they order anything online? Their preferences and focus tend to shift to keep them safe from the deadly impacts of coronavirus.
Impacts of Coronavirus on Brand & Industries:
We’ve all been flooded with news telling a number of companies have shut down their manufacturing units in China due to coronavirus outbreak. Some have reopened while some are on their way.
Here is a sum-up about various industries and brands which have been affected by the impacts of coronavirus.
Manufacturing Industry:
Almost all the conglomerates have one (or two or more) manufacturing units in China country. From the cost of labors to availability of labors and tech support, China fits the expectations as a manufacturing hub.
The impacts of coronavirus have had a major effect on production and manufacturing units. Areas, where the outbreak was said to be very high, was shut down immediately.
Shutting down factories in China is more likely to disrupt the entire world where goods produced from the country are going.
Impacts of coronavirus outbreak can be felt across a range of industries like the supply of inputs from China including electronic components, non-electrical machinery, and machine tools, meta products, organic chemical and pharmaceutical ingredients.
“The companies solely depend on Chinese supply chains for their raw material should be avoided” – Pankaj Bobade, Head Fundamental Research, Axis Securities.
Impacts of Coronavirus on Smartphone Industry:
Apple temporarily closed all of its 42 stores in mainland China due to coronavirus outbreak and Samsung made similar moves soon after Apple.
In Wuhan, China, tech companies have been shutting down their stores and offices across the country.
Apple’s head of people, Deirdre O’Brien wrote in an internal email on 7th Feb. that offices and contact centers were expected to open around 10th February. Additional cleaning and health protocols are now being taken more seriously than ever before after prolonged impacts of coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Realizing the impacts of coronavirus outbreak, Samsun announced that it will donate around $4.3 million towards the outbreak and supply medical gear to help fight the disease.
World’s largest smartphone exhibition, Mobile World Congress 2020 was canceled due to coronavirus outbreak where showstoppers like LG, Samsung, ZTE, Vivo, Sony are said to be the first ones to exit the show.
Soon after their exit entire MWC 2020 was canceled.
Impacts of Coronavirus on Automobile Industry:
Tesla temporarily closed all of its stores in mainland China on Sunday 2nd February when more than half of China’s country was shut down in an effort to control the impacts of coronavirus outbreak.
Tesla shares dropped more than 17% on Wednesday after Tao Lin – Tesla VP in China announced that cars that were initially scheduled for delivery to customers are delayed due to coronavirus outbreak.
Last year Tesla opened a dedicated factory in Shanghai last year to begin producing Model 3. The production stopped soon after it was realized that the virus is not stopping amid so many precautions taken.
By Wednesday that week after the news, automakers like Hyundai, Volkswagen also followed Tesla’s shutting down its stores.
Indian Automakers Have Started to Feel the Impacts of Coronavirus:
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. And Tata Motors said on Sunday that car parts coming from China are stuck due to coronavirus outbreak.
“Going into March, we anticipate the challenge on parts-supply to continue for another few weeks before we get back to normalcy.” – Veejay Ram Nakra. Chief of Sales and Marketing at M&M’s automotive division said in a press release.
M&M said its domestic sales had fallen by 42%, Tata Motors reported a drop of 34% while Maruti Suzuki said its total domestic sales were down by 1.6% in February.
Impact of Coronavirus in Retail & Tech Industry:
That’s so obvious. Like, imagine a situation where there is a disease out there on the streets that have the ability to spread from coughing and sneezing.
Would you take the risk to go out and shop for your groceries or that luxury sofa that you wanted to buy singe 6 months? I’m sure the answer is a no-no!
“Declining consumer confidence, potentially severe retail-traffic declined, and temporary store closures are evolving risk factors that depend on uncertain variables like the geographic spread of the virus and the timing of containment/eradication solutions.” – According to Cowen analysts.
There have been empty shelves along with empty stores of Target Corp and Walmart Inc.
“It’s worth noting that big-box players like Target and Walmart could be the 1st to experience out-of-stock issues as they are more heavily dependent on a shorter-lead-time replenishment model.”
BestBuy, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc and G-III Apparel Group Ltd. Are some of the companies said to be at risk?
The movie business is also said to be affected by the outbreak. Hardly anyone is interested to step out of their home and watch a movie when they know that every cough and sneeze has the potential to make people fall into the trap of coronavirus outbreak.
“There are always wild cards we cannot control like impacts of coronavirus and a politically charged election year. But when it comes to the fundamentals, our economy is sound and consumers continue to lead the way.” – commented by NRF Chief Executive Matthew Shay in a statement on Wednesday.
Global giant, Amazon started restricting employee travel to China as the coronavirus continues to spread. The company is banning all non-essential travel to the country, but if employees must travel to China, they have to receive approval first.
Good thing is that Amazon does not have its office in Wuhan where the maximum impacts of coronavirus outbreak were said to be the most. But it has business in Beijing, Shenzhen Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
Is Pharma Industry Safe?
Pharma industry is savage. Any virus outbreak requires a new drug to be rolled out for its cure. Which is why the coronavirus outbreak comes with some relaxation to the pharma industry.
From masks, inhalers to anti-virus drugs, sales of the allied things have gone up. But this was the case in China. What about drugs that are being exported to other continents?
India imports not less than 67% of its pharma requirements from China. From active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to intermediates, almost every big and small supply has its part coming from China.
Typically, pharma makers maintain a buffer stock of ingredients for 2-3 months which means there are no immediate impacts of coronavirus outbreak.
But if the outbreak lasts longer, companies depended on Chinese APIs will be exposed. Impacts of coronavirus outbreak can be observed in the prices of key APIs including paracetamol, azithromycin, and ibuprofen. There has been a 30-80% hike in the prices of medicines since the spreading of disease.
Are Companies Really at a Loss?
In the short run people, brands, companies, and industries might have been stuck with coronavirus outbreak. But history comes with proof that every time an epidemic pops up, share market goes down for a month or two but for continuous 6 months it gives a positive return.
Summing Up:
You pick up any industry and you will see either direct or indirect results of the disease. From company stores to its manufacturing units, everywhere we see drastic impacts of coronavirus outbreak.
Brands and companies are run by people only and if a group of companies is hit by the virus, then its obvious that leaders running the business will be affected as well.
It’s been approximately 2 months since the disease started spreading. Now, the number of cases observed is declining and stores of many conglomerates are re-opened but the risk continues to linger.
On behalf of Next Big Brand, we hope that this deadly disease is flushed from the world by the earliest.
