Supplies of the hottest smartphones could soon run out as production slows in coronavirus-hit China
- The supply chain chaos is already wiping out the smartphone industry’s hopes for sales growth this year
- The output slump from factories in China means it will take time to fix global delivery backlogs for brands like Apple, Samsung and Huawei
As Chinese factories hit by the coronavirus look to restart production, the pain is only beginning for telecommunications carriers that rely on steady shipments of smartphones from Asia.
US mobile network operator AT&T is bracing for handset shortages across the country. A carrier in the UK and one in France are already dealing with supply disruption and could run out of some popular models, people familiar with the matter said.
British mobile network operators may even resort to using stockpiles of smartphones they had built up in case of a Brexit-related supply crunch, said one of the people, a company executive who asked not to be identified as the information is private.
The supply chain chaos may last only a few weeks, but it is already wiping out the smartphone industry’s hopes for sales growth this year.
Worldwide device sales are set to fall 4.3 per cent in 2020, with European sales tumbling 7.4 per cent, according to industry consultancy Canalys. It was forecasting global growth of 3.6 per cent before the novel coronavirus brought much of Chinese factories to a juddering halt.
“There’s a huge supply-side shortage for smartphones that we are already starting to see trickle through to some markets around the world,” said Ben Stanton, head of devices research for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Canalys.