For one South Korean multinational company that makes smartphone components used by Apple Inc. and LG Electronics Inc., the coronavirus epidemic is dealing blow after blow.
First, the initial outbreak forced its China factory to shut down for almost three weeks and caused supplies from China for its Vietnam plant to begin to dry up. Then when the virus spread to South Korea, travel restrictions prevented its workers from keeping an expansion at the plant, located in the port city of Hai Phong, on track.
Now the company, which declined to be named to protect business relationships, is looking at disruptions in its factory in the industrial hub of Gumi, less than an hour's drive from Daegu, the epicenter of South Korea's coronavirus cases.