COVID-19 Spurs Sony Smartphone Sales Concerns

Sony by local “mandate” shut down both its consumer electronics factories in Malaysia on March 18, said the company Friday. That the Malaysian plants will stay closed at least through April 14 is expected to have severe repercussions on Sony’s core consumer tech business, it said: The flow of “resources” from Asian suppliers “has become unstable” amid COVID-19. This is having a “wide-ranging impact on the manufacturing of goods” in the consumer audiovisual segment, it said. There has been no “material impact” on making CMOS image sensors, it said. Sony’s main CMOS customers are smartphone makers that rely on supply chains in China, it said. Sony’s four factories in China restarted operations in “increments” beginning Feb. 10, said the company. “Supply chain issues remain, but operations are returning to the level they were before the spread of the virus.” Though recovery in Chinese supply chains “has led to sales gradually returning to normal levels, there is a risk that going forward sales could be impacted by a slowdown in the smartphone market,” it said.