China’s out-of-action labor force is causing concern. With the coronavirus trapping around 50 million people in Hubei, a number equal to twice the population of Australia, and exponentially more workers required by authorities to submit to self-quarantine measures after returning from their hometowns to their urban places of work, China’s behemoth manufacturing base is sputtering.
The country nominally returned to work on Feb. 10 but remains on high alert for the coronavirus, which as of Monday had claimed 1,770 lives. While the U.S.-China trade war and overall rising wages in China have diversified some manufacturing away from the country in recent times, it still plays an outsized role in global manufacturing, contributing more than 40 percent of global textile exports.
Last week, Alibaba revealed that its logistics business Cainiao had less than 20 percent of their usual courier numbers back to work. Multiple trade shows — Intertextile Shanghai, Yarn Expo, Chic Shanghai, Kingpins Hong Kong — and fashion weeks in Shanghai and Beijing have been postponed indefinitely.
“Businesses have not truly gone back to work as some firms have extended return-to-work times into March,” said Jason Ong, director at AlixPartners. “The major tech companies generally have pushed start times into late February. Even
The country nominally returned to work on Feb. 10 but remains on high alert for the coronavirus, which as of Monday had claimed 1,770 lives. While the U.S.-China trade war and overall rising wages in China have diversified some manufacturing away from the country in recent times, it still plays an outsized role in global manufacturing, contributing more than 40 percent of global textile exports.
Last week, Alibaba revealed that its logistics business Cainiao had less than 20 percent of their usual courier numbers back to work. Multiple trade shows — Intertextile Shanghai, Yarn Expo, Chic Shanghai, Kingpins Hong Kong — and fashion weeks in Shanghai and Beijing have been postponed indefinitely.
“Businesses have not truly gone back to work as some firms have extended return-to-work times into March,” said Jason Ong, director at AlixPartners. “The major tech companies generally have pushed start times into late February. Even
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