A total of 161 Taiwanese companies have had to suspend production amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan, Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said Monday.

The companies have responded by activating contingency plans, such as adjusting production schedules or processes and outsourcing production to other factories, Chang Chen-shan (???), director-general of the FSC’s Securities and Futures Bureau, said at a Legislative hearing.

To date, none of the companies have reported being significantly affected financially by the large-scale closures, he said.

Chang was answering a lawmaker’s question about the impact of the lockdowns, which have been in place in Shanghai since late March and in Kunshan since early April, as the cities battle China’s largest COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began.

The lawmaker, Lee Guei-min (???) of the opposition Kuomintang, asked FSC Chairman Huang Tien-mu (???) if there was any chance that companies were not reporting the full extent of the shutdowns’ impact on their operations, thus posing a risk to investors.

Huang responded that each company had to judge for itself whether its situation met the materiality threshold for issuing a statement through the Taiwan Stock Exchange, adding that the exchange would pursue legal action in any instances of false reporting.

Kunshan, which lies about 60 kilometers west of Shanghai, is a major hub for Taiwanese printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturers.

Over the last week, several companies in the area said they were managing to continue operations by having workers live on-site, but complained that severe logistics problems, including shipping delays in the Port of Shanghai, could derail their efforts.

Shanghai reported a record daily high 26,087 COVID-19 infections on Sunday, though 25,173 of the cases were classified as asymptomatic.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel