China's commerce ministry said it will take measures to stabilise foreign trade, following the country's efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
The epidemic, according to Ministry of Commerce official, Li Xingqian, will only have a temporary impact on supply chains, and China's foreign trade firms are set to resume production.
Some 70 per cent of major foreign trade firms in the Zhejiang and Shandong provinces have reportedly resumed operations, while other manufacturing hubs such as Guangdong and Jiangsu are set to pick up operations.
China is expected to unveil more policies on stabilising foreign trade, Xingqian said, but he has not disclosed any further details, particularly in light existing policies to help companies address labour shortages, raw materials and epidemic-prevention supplies.
Xingqian said China is enhancing efforts to control the epidemic while increasing support for foreign trade companies.
Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reports that e-commerce company, Alibaba Group, despite operating at 20 per cent capacity, could benefit from the coronavirus outbreak regardless of travel lockdowns and quarantines complicating delivery operations.
Company executives told WSJ they expected challenges in the short run, but said Alibaba could benefit in the future as the lockdowns trapping people inside their homes encourage consumers to shift more purchases online.
Alibaba Chief Financial Officer, Maggie Wu, explained production in the economy is hampered as there is demand for product but the supply is not there.
Growth may slow at Alibaba's Chinese retail marketplace business, as well as its local-delivery businesses, according to Wu. She told WSJ last week it was too early for Alibaba to quantify the financial impact of the coronavirus, but believed it would be a one-off occurrence and that Chinese consumer demand would bounce back.
The World Health Organization was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China on 31 December 2019. On 7 January, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a new virus. The new virus is a coronavirus, which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS. This new virus was temporarily named '2019-nCoV'.
