Apple highlights Coronavirus as a threat to Global Businesses

Apple has revealed how the coronavirus has gripped China and was affecting its business, saying it was cutting its sales expectations for this quarter, which a month ago it had projected to be robust.

The company is highly dependent on Chinese factories and Chinese consumers. It's supply of smartphones would be hampered because production was ramping up more slowly than expected as China reopened its factories. Apple also said that demand for its devices in China had been hurt by the outbreak; it closed all 42 of its stores in the country last month and most are yet to reopen.

Many global firms rely on factories in China to manufacture goods and Chinese consumers, who had ridden a wave of rising wealth, had been avid buyers of luxury goods, iPhones and many other items.

Fears over the coronavirus’s impact on the global economy and business have been growing. As of Tuesday morning in China, more than 72,000 people had been infected by the coronavirus and over 1,800 had died worldwide, officials reported. About three-quarters of a billion people in China are under some kind of lockdown orders. Apple also assembles most of its products in China. Foxconn makes iPhones and other gadgets on behalf of Apple and global electronics companies, has declined to detail which plants have reopened since the Lunar New Year holiday ended.