US companies face crucial test over China's factory shutdown

U.S. entrepreneur James Mault is hanging his hopes on March 1. That’s the day his Chinese manufacturing partner is supposed to reopen and start churning out medical devices after shutting down over the coronavirus.

The engineers are already back to work at the facility in southern China, which makes medical equipment for several Western companies. Hundreds of assembly-line workers are supposed to return on Sunday, Mault said.

“We’re about a month to six weeks delayed in receiving product,” Mault, the founder of Denver-based BioIntelliSense, said, calling that a bearable situation. “But it certainly will impact us dramatically if it goes beyond that.”

The next few weeks will be crunchtime for U.S. companies awaiting products from stalled Chinese factories. If their suppliers spring back to life soon, many companies say they should be able to manage without disastrous disruption. But the uncertainty is keeping managers up at night.

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