To slow down coronavirus outbreak within China Thus far, the Chinese government has locked down several cities such as Wuhan, Huanggan and Ezhou so factory workers are unable to resume work.

“Nearly 90% of Taiwan’s IT production is currently based in China. Even though the US-China trade war has given Taiwanese companies no choice but to move some of their production bases outside of China since last year, the process has been relatively slow. Thus, 80% of the global PC supply by Taiwanese companies will likely be affected this year,” said Victor Tsan, General Director of MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), Taipei-based government-backed IT research institute.

"Even without the coronavirus outbreak, Taiwanese IT companies already have shifted their production bases out of China due to the trade war. This epidemic is only to accelerate this trend,” Tsan added.

MIC also conducted a scenario analysis on the cross-strait coronavirus outbreak. “Our findings suggest the most likely scenario will be uncontrollable outbreaks in China but no group infections in Taiwan,” said Chris Hung, Deputy General Director of MIC.