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Business concerns shift to Europe as China begins to recover from COVID-19
Most factories in Batam have had to reduce production activities due to a lack of raw materials imported from China.
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The PT Pegatron Technology Indonesia factory at Batamindo Industrial Park in Batam, Riau Island, started operations on July 9, 2019. (JP/Fadli)
S
uparman, a worker at a coffee machine factory, parked his motorcycle at the parking lot of Panbill Mall located in the Panbil Industrial Zone on Batam Island in the province of Riau Islands on Thursday morning.
He was eager to get back to work at the factory after having been sent home for five days. The factory had closed four of its 12 assembly lines because of a lack of raw materials, most of which are imported from China.
“We were sent home for five days because there was nothing to do. But we got called today to start working again as the factory reopened the assembly line,” Suparman told The Jakarta Post.
“I heard that there was a disruption of raw material supplies from China. That’s why we did not have any work to do, with the consequence that we were sent home for five days.”
Most factories in Batam have had to reduce their production activities due to the lack of raw material imported from China. The shipment of raw materials from the world’s second-largest economy was disrupted not only because of the extended Chinese New Year holidays but also because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced the government to close factories and suspend many other business activities.
The Chinese New Year holidays, initially set to run from January 24 to 30, had been extended by three days in an attempt to help contain the coronavirus. However, most provincial governments in the country told businesses not to reopen until mid-February to prevent spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.
