Most Taiwanese firms in China plan to cut back their operations or put off investment, as most believe that the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak would persist for at least six months, a survey released yesterday by the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 全國工業總會) found.
The trade group, which represents a majority of local manufacturing firms, sounded the alarm after polling 157 companies in July and August.
“COVID-19 has had a much worse impact on Taiwanese firms than reported in the media, and could batter the economy like a massive tsunami if the government fails to respond quickly,” the federation said.
Photo: AFP
More than 80 percent of the respondents said they took a hit from the pandemic, mainly in the form of lost orders and disruptions to goods flows.
The fallout has been most severe for small and medium-sized enterprises that have investments of US$1 million or less in China, the federation said.
About 61 percent of respondents suffered disruptions to their goods or labor flows, 47.3 percent reported overseas order losses and 30.1 percent were unable to deliver goods as agreed upon, it said.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak in China has eased, only 49.2 percent of respondents have seen their manufacturing capability restored to more than 70 percent, while the recovery rate was between 10 and 60 percent for another 43.9 percent of the respondents, it said.
About 6.9 percent of respondents said that their operations were still on hold.
Non-tech firms, such as makers of plastic and textile products, have suffered the most, with more than 90 percent of them reporting a decline in business, the federation said, adding that 68.2 percent of electronics producers had also reported a decline.
Border controls pose the biggest headache for labor flows, as 67.2 percent of Taiwanese executives posted to China have been unable to return to their jobs and 48.1 percent based in China are unable to come back to Taiwan, it said.
Just over 65 percent of the firms polled expect the pandemic to weigh on the landscape for more than six months, and consequently, 75.2 percent said they would not be increasing their investments in the next two years.
Already, 59.7 percent of respondents said that they are downsizing operations, postponing investments, furloughing staffers or cutting wages to cope with the pandemic, the survey found.
The pandemic has driven 44.2 percent to take action to diversify their market, while 38.4 percent favor a wait-and-see attitude and 33.3 percent intend to speed up their digital transformation, the federation said.
About 50 percent of respondents said they wanted Taiwan’s government to help them, and nearly 60 percent are looking at tax credits as an incentive to return operations to Taiwan, it said.
Just over half of the respondents (51.1 percent) called for looser cross-strait border controls, while 38.3 percent said they wanted to see more cross-strait flights, the federation said.
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