S'pore manufacturers, service providers shut some China ops amid virus spread

MAINBOARD-LISTED precision metal part maker InnoTek has had to close some of its subsidiary Mansfield Group's six factories in mainland China, which is battling the outbreak of a deadly novel coronavirus that spread rapidly from Wuhan in Hubei province and is now raging across the world.

The local authorities have yet to say when Mansfield Suzhou staff can go back to work, the InnoTek board said in an announcement on Monday. As for when the 65 employees of Mansfield Wuhan may return, that "will depend on the development of the epidemic", it noted.

Still, Mansfield restarted operations in the city of Dongguan in Guangdong province on Monday.

Similarly, computer parts distributor Powermatic Data Systems disclosed that it has two wholly-owned subsidiaries, which are run out of a Suzhou industrial park, that cannot resume operations without the all-clear from the local authorities.

The group has made an application to the authorities for Compex (Suzhou) and Compex Wireless (Suzhou), which operate in ChuangTou Industrial Square, to get back to business.

But with travel restrictions on mainland China disrupting supply chains, the board said that Powermatic, "like many other multinational companies having key operations in the PRC", relies on logistics infrastructure to access raw materials and ship finished products globally.

"The group will provide an update once its operations in the PRC resume," the board added.

Separately, Catalist-listed Aoxin Q & M Dental Group told shareholders in a bourse filing on Monday that all 17 of its dental centres in Liaoning province - some 1,500 kilometres from Hubei - are closed until further notice, as the authorities there have suspended dental treatments.

Given the continued uncertainty of the coronavirus situation, "it is currently difficult to ascertain the financial impact it has on the financial performance of the group", the company added.

Meanwhile, Zhongmin Baihui Retail Group's stores have been open for shorter than usual since early-February. While the stores were supposed to resume their normal trading hours over the weekend, the move to adopt shorter hours has now been extended to Wednesday.

Changsha Sasseur (Zhongmin Baihui) Outlets, an outlet mall in Hunan province's capital of Changsha, has been closed since Jan 26. It was supposed to stay shut until Sunday but "will now remain closed till further notice", the board disclosed.