Jobs Endangered As The Coronavirus Threatens Spain’s Supply Chain

We previously reported that the electronics manufacturer Fujitsu warned that its Andalusian plant is suffering economically from the coronavirus outbreaks around the world. The epidemic is causing production problems at the plant in Málaga, due to the lack of components from temporary shut down Chinese factories. The production problems are said to affect more than 300 of the Spanish factory employees.

Now, more companies with manufacturing plants in Spain are facing the same issues. They might need to find new suppliers outside of China where the coronavirus hasn’t affected the component supply as much.

Sergio Esteve is the Director of Consulting at BDO, an international network of accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory companies. He explains that “Specifically in Spain, 9% of the imports come from China (26,908 million euros in 2018), according to ICEX data, so it seems inevitable that Spanish companies are affected and forced to temporarily change their chain of supply”.

Among the sectors that could be most affected in the Spanish industry are, according to BDO, the automotive, textile, petrochemical, and even the toy sector.

Globally, the industries that manufacture textiles, high-tech goods and household goods are the ones that would be most affected, according to data provided by Euromonitor International.

In 2018, the textile industry had 54% of its world production in China, tech products had 46%, and household goods had 35%.

It’s time for Spanish companies to find other supply chains quickly before the Chinese coronavirus factory shutdowns endanger more jobs in the country.