Companies trimming outlooks, travel, workers as virus spreads
General Electric Co. believes the viral outbreak could have a negative impact of about $300 million to $500 million on its firstquarter industrial free cash flow.
Operating profit for the period could be hurt by about $200 million to $300 million. GE said the expectations are incorporated into its full-year 2020 outlook. Major corporations such as Apple, Microsoft and Visa already have cut expectations.
Rationing: Kroger Co., the nation’s biggest independent grocer and parent company of King Soopers and City Market, is placing limits on the number of certain products that customers buy as its shelves are cleared by people doing heavy stocking in preparation for any spread of the virus. Amazon is warning same-day grocery customers that delivery may be limited. Target and Walmart are scrambling to replenish shelves with basics such as canned goods, toilet paper and other household essentials, but have yet to announce rationing.
Travel restrictions: Delta will reduce its weekly flying schedule to Japan through April 30 and suspend summer seasonal service between Seattle and Osaka for 2020 in response to reduced demand due to COVID-19.
Amazon has asked its 800,000 employees worldwide to postpone nonessential travel. Ford Motor Co. has banned domestic and international travel, unless approved at the highest levels of the company.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said Wednesday that international travel by employees has been restricted.
Networking is not working: Starbucks converted its big annual shareholders meeting in hometown Seattle to a virtual only event due to concerns about the virus. The meeting will still be held on March 18.
The 40th Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, scheduled for later this month in Boston, has been postponed. The largest such event in North America typically attracts about 20,000 people.
The International Monetary Fund said its spring meetings in Washington, D.C., along with those of the World Bank, will now be “virtual.”
The Global Gaming Expo Asia scheduled for later this month in Macao has been pushed back to the end of July. More than 13,000 people attended last year’s expo.
Close to home: Amazon says one of its employees in Seattle has contracted the new coronavirus. “We’re supporting the affected employee, who is in quarantine,” it said in a prepared statement. Amazon said earlier this week that two of its employees in Milan, Italy, have contracted the virus and are quarantined.
Aflac announced Wednesday that a temporary worker at its call center in Kobe, Japan, is infected with the virus.
Staff reductions: Finnish national carrier Finnair is planning temporary layoffs between 14 days up to one month for its entire nearly staff of nearly 7,000 based in Finland due to the economic impact caused by coronavirus to the airline’s operations.
Short supply: A U.N. agency estimated Wednesday that a shortage of industrial parts from China caused by the coronavirus outbreak has set off a “ripple effect” that caused exports from other countries around the world to drop by $47 billion last month.
Entertainment: The release of the James Bond film “No Time To Die” is being pushed back several months because of concerns about coronavirus.
MGM, Universal and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli announced Wednesday on Twitter that the film will be released in November, rather than next month as originally planned.