Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Chinese chip makers have kept their factories operational despite government calls to halt work to help stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
Huawei said on Monday it had resumed production of goods including consumer devices and carrier equipment, and operations were running normally.
The company restarted manufacturing after the Lunar New Year holiday in line with a special exemption that allows certain critical industries to remain in operation, in defiance of Beijing’s call to halt all work in some cities and provinces.
Various provinces and cities in China have called for factories to halt work, though companies in certain industries can remain in operation while others can apply for an exemption.
A notice in Shanghai, for example, says that businesses involved in producing food supplies, medical supplies or sectors relevant to the national economy.
Other companies have also kept production running, in some cases even through the New Year, in a sign of the critical importance Beijing places on its domestic tech supply chain, a subject of friction with the United States
Yangtze Memory Technologies, a state-backed maker of flash memory chips based in Wuhan – the city where the virus outbreak began – confirmed that it had not ceased production.
“At present, production and operations at YMTC are proceeding normally and in an orderly manner,” a company spokesman wrote in a statement.
The spokesman said no employees had been confirmed as infection cases, and the company had enacted certain isolation measures and partitions to ensure the safety of employees.
State media reported that the chip maker did not cease operations over the Lunar New Year holiday.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) also kept production running through the holiday break.
In a post on social media, the company said it organised a workgroup before the holiday to ensure plants could stay open while protecting the safety of employees and adhering to government regulations.
“SMIC needs to ensure that factory production runs 365 days a year and 24 hours a day to meet customers’ fabrication needs,” the company said in the post.
The company, which rivals Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has facilities in Tianjin, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai.
Nina Kao, TSMC’s spokeswoman, told Reuters that the company currently “maintains partial operation” in China and it plans to resume full operation on Feb 10.
Samsung Electronics has also not seen a production disruption at its chip factory in Xi’an despite the coronavirus outbreak, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
They did not give further details.
A Samsung Electronics representative confirmed that the plant had been running as usual, saying production had not stopped during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Representatives of Samsung Display, SK Hynix and LG Display also said they were running their Chinese factories as usual.