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Industry Rumors: Coronavirus can be final blow for camera industry
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  • According to my two sources it is big panic inside Japanese camera industry.

    As they outsources and moved to China lot of parts, many have assembly factories, but roughly NONE is free from some Chinese part (despite some telling otherwise, even high end manufacturers use intermediate local firms to hide the fract).

    For lot of this stuff Japanese factories are being sold and later destroyed long ago and all specialists dismissed.

    Their only hope is big unsold stock and also drop for cameras purchases.

  • Apple: no selfie for you

    The first is that worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained. While our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside the Hubei province — and while all of these facilities have reopened — they are ramping up more slowly than we had anticipated. The health and well-being of every person who helps make these products possible is our paramount priority, and we are working in close consultation with our suppliers and public health experts as this ramp continues. These iPhone supply shortages will temporarily affect revenues worldwide.

    The second is that demand for our products within China has been affected. All of our stores in China and many of our partner stores have been closed. Additionally, stores that are open have been operating at reduced hours and with very low customer traffic. We are gradually reopening our retail stores and will continue to do so as steadily and safely as we can. Our corporate offices and contact centers in China are open, and our online stores have remained open throughout.
  • A freight train left China's central city of Zhengzhou on Sunday, marking the resumption of Henan Province's exports to Belt and Road countries following the conclusion of the Spring Festival holiday amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

    The train's 41 containers weighing 615.8 tons contain goods such as mechanical and electrical equipment, metal products, precision parts and daily necessities. On Friday, the first China-Europe freight that resumed operations after the Chinese New Year holiday made its departure from the city of Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province. The cargo includes communication devices, ATMs, circuit boards and vacuum cleaners produced in the Pearl River Delta.

    The operation of freight trains in Guangdong was suspended due to the holiday and coronavirus epidemic outbreak. The train is expected to arrive in Kaluga, Russia in a fortnight, the China Railway Guangzhou Group said.

    "With enterprises in the Pearl River Delta resuming operations, there will be more China-Europe freight trains with more containers," said Peng Tang of the Guangdong branch of China Railway Container Transport Corporation.

    Earlier this week, the freight train service from Zhejiang Province to Central Asia also resumed. A train loaded with 82 standard containers left a railway station in the city of Jinhua, eastern China's Zhejiang Province. The cargo including hardware tools, textiles and auto parts is heading to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries through the Horgos Port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
  • @jleo

    Issue is that all cargo for this trains had been made and stockpiled before Chinese NY.

  • Motherboard and graphics card sales in China are expected to plunge 50% or more in the first quarter of 2020, according to sources at local channel distributors.

  • Even Foxconn can't find workforce for their factories.

    For returning to factory they will start paying $450 instantly. But sum is expected to triple in coming days.

    Foxconn plans to initially try to ramp up to 50% of capacity and only in late March hope to reach 80%.

    But even such numbers is mostly lie to calm down poor Apple investors.

  • The world's top-5 notebook brand vendors are expected to see their combined shipments (excluding detachable models) fall over 30% sequentially in January 2020, due to a combination of negative factors including the coronavirus impact and seasonality,

    My sources tell that cameras shipments drop to dealers will reach 50% for most brands and up to 70% for Olympus and Pentax. Final sales in Asia to fall up to 60% YoY.

    Japanese manufacturers already had secret meeting and will have more coordinating CIPA numbers rigging.

  • Many electronics plants in China are running at 20-30% capacity utilization due to strict travel and quarantine restrictions enforced by over 80 cities in China.

    Even if the workers can all return to work, the plants' capacity utilization will pick up to a maximum of only 60-70%.

  • Car sales in China

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  • Stockpiles of handset inventory in China's distribution channels are now estimated at nearly 60 million units, which may take at least two months to clear out and force handset brands to adjust their roadmaps for new models, according to sources from Taiwan's handset supply chain.

    Sadly, no stockpiles of cameras in China, only in US and EU warehouses.

  • South Korea now has 433 cases and they expect it to double in next 2 days.

    Taiwan still hiding under the rock.

  • Foxconn already hiked payment for any worker who will agree to resume work to $746.

  • Samsung Electronics said on Saturday that one coronavirus case had been confirmed at its mobile device factory complex in the southeastern city of Gumi, causing a shutdown of its entire facility there until Monday morning.

    Samsung Electronics, the world’s top smartphone maker, said the floor where the infected employee worked would be shut down until the morning of Feb. 25.

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    Nice predictions if virus will suddenly stop.

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  • Dear customers and partners of Koelnmesse,

    We are currently receiving inquiries as to whether a possible risk from the corona virus that has occurred in China affects our Koelnmesse events.

    Koelnmesse takes the topic seriously and has initiated a level of increased attention. This includes the permanent exchange with the health authorities. In view of the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the German Federal Ministry of Health and the local health authorities, there is currently no reason to cancel major events such as those at Koelnmesse. The German trade fair organizers have also confirmed in a joint declaration that all upcoming trade fairs will be held.

    That means: All of our Cologne events continue as planned. We look forward to your participation. We will provide information on useful prophylactic measures on site. We are increasingly offering disinfectants, which are the most effective anti-transmission agents. Highly frequented areas are also cleaned with increased frequency. Qualified doctors and paramedics in our medical stations are prepared for possible suspected cases and are available to answer any questions you may have.

  • Facebook is the latest major tech firm to cancel a conference or employee event. The social media giant said Thursday that it's cancelling its annual F8 developer conference, the biggest FB event of the year, over coronavirus concerns.

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  • By optimizing the overtime mode of production line employees, OmniVision can restore its production capacity to about 70% by the end of Feb 2020, and is expected to return to 100% in Mar. OmniVision packages and tests 400M-500M image sensor chips each year, and the shipment of 12” high-pixel image sensor wafers is 200,000.

  • Geneva International Motor Show, GIMS) is cancelled.

    Government just banned any activities involving more than 1000 visitors, Germany will follow soon.

    US can join the party in next 1-2 months.

  • As cases are likely to increase in the next months, Photokina seems more likely to be cancelled.

  • Small aka whisper rumor.

    It seems like Japanese companies outsourced much more lens production then they like to tell you.

    One guy I talked (from Japan) told that even some super premium glass is actually made in China now, and Japanese factory make only small special batches and is shown to journalists. As Chinese factory can make glass 3-4x cheaper compared to outdated Japanese machines.

  • This year’s annual Game Developers Conference has been postponed amid growing concern about the international coronavirus outbreaks.

  • Parks and scenic tourists spots have reopened in China and you can bring your camera :) Visits are limited to anywhere from 30-500 people an hour depending on the location. Restaurants are also reopening but no large groups, only two people per table. Guests are screened at all venues for temperature readings.