Posted on 04/03/2003 6:31:42 AM PST by leadpencil1
SARS Virus Sparks Fears in Tech Industry
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - U.S. chip giant Intel Corp. (INTC) has backed out of important road shows in China and Taiwan this month because of a deadly disease that's spreading quickly through Asia.
The cancellations by the world's biggest chipmaker might lend more weight to warnings by analysts who say the mysterious flu-like illness could eventually cripple the high-tech industry if doctors can't control it soon.
Intel, which cut the events Wednesday, has no plans to reschedule the Taipei and Beijing developer forums - highly anticipated shows that allow creators of gadgets and software to learn about the latest chip designs, Intel spokeswomen Josie Taylor said.
About 1,500 were expected to attend the shows in Taipei on April 13-15 and Beijing on April 17-18, she said.
"Given the feedback from customers who are concerned about traveling," Taylor said, "we decided that rather than have one large event, we'd conduct a series of tech briefings" using the Internet, mailed materials and small face-to-face meetings.
Intel's chief executive, Craig Barrett, planned to speak at the forums but canceled his trip to the region - home to many of the world's biggest electronics makers.
So far, the illness has killed more than 70 people and sickened more than 2,000 worldwide - more than half of them in China.
Intel isn't the only major company taking drastic measures to avoid the sickness, called severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
Motorola temporarily closed a factory in Singapore last week after one of its workers was diagnosed with SARS. Taiwanese computer giant Acer Inc. Corp. has advised employees to avoid nonessential visits to plants in China. Wistron Corp., a Taiwanese computer supplier for Hewlett-Packard, has done the same.
Taylor declined to speculate whether the illness could hurt the electronics industry. But she said that Intel wasn't seriously concerned.
"We're a global company," she said. "Many of our developers are working across the world, not in a single location."
But Russ Craig, a digital consumer technology analyst, warned that the illness could cause serious manufacturing disruptions, schedule slippages and transportation delays that could derail the global tech industry.
Craig, who works for the U.S.-based Aberdeen Group market analysis firm, notes that the industry has become heavily reliant on China for semiconductors and basic components for notebook computers, DVD players and televisions.
For example, China "is a major source of AC-to-DC power supplies, those little black cubes that clutter your power strip," Craig said. "You can assemble a laptop elsewhere, but you cannot sell it without a power supply."
Chris Hsieh, a semiconductor analyst at ING Barings Securities in Taipei, said that he has yet to see any serious interruptions in the tech industry. He said that engineers and designers could get by in the short-term by exchanging blueprints and other information on the Internet.
Hsieh also said that so far most of the cases in China have been reported in Beijing and the southern province Guangdong, which abuts Hong Kong. Most Taiwanese companies - among the biggest tech investors in China - are clustered around Shanghai, farther up the southeastern coast, he said.
But Hsieh noted that China has been slow to report its cases and the outbreak could be worse than expected. The tech industry could be seriously hurt if large numbers of line workers get sick and plants are closed, he said.
"If they start to be attacked by the virus," he said, "then we'll see some slowdown in production."
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