vietnam malaysia and thailand are three of the regions major manufacturing hubs and produce goods for some of the worlds largest consumer brandsfresh coronavirus outbreaks in southeast asia have hurt factory activity across industries threatening the regions recovery from the covid19 pandemic and disrupting global supplies of goods such as apparels automobiles and electronics coronavirus curbs have led companies to shut factories and suspend or reduce operations at a time when asias manufacturing sector is already grappling with rising raw material costs and signs of a slowing chinese economy advt vietnam malaysia and thailand are three of the regions major manufacturing hubs and produce goods for some of the worlds largest consumer brands vietnama coronavirus wave since april forced vietnams largest cities and industrial hubs to impose strict lockdowns prompting electronics apparel and footwear manufacturers to suspend or reduce operations the restrictions have been eased in recent weeks the outbreak initially hit northern industrial areas where suppliers for apple samsung and other global tech firms are located in may the northern province of bac giang ordered four industrial parks including three that house production facilities of taiwans foxconn to temporarily shut down the outbreak spread further south and in july ho chi minh city and neighbouring industrial provinces imposed strict lockdown measures that month taiwans pou chen corp which makes footwear for nike and adidas suspended operations at its plant in ho chi minh city and changshin vietnam a south korean firm manufacturing shoes for nike shut three of its factories nike has cut its fiscal 2022 sales expectations and warned of holiday delays buyers of apples new iphone 13 are facing longerthanexpected delivery times because of the outbreak in vietnam where components for the devices new camera module are assembled advt the vietnam textile and apparel association said several international fashion brands have shifted their orders away from vietnam and 60 of apparel and footwear makers in the country have been fined for slow deliveries malaysiaseveral automakers and semiconductor companies have said in recent months that pandemicrelated disruptions in malaysia were hitting supply chains malaysia imposed a lockdown in june as infections hit record levels but has gradually eased restrictions on manufacturing since july curbs in malaysia which supplies about 67 of the global rubber glove market also forced many glove makers to suspend operations in june and july malaysia is home to factories serving semiconductor makers such as europes stmicroelectronics and infineon as well as major carmakers including toyota motor corp and ford motor co stmicroelectronics said in july it temporarily closed its assembly plant in malaysia for 11 days due to the coronavirus german chipmaker infineon said in august the firm will take a hit in the high doubledigit million euros from shutdowns at its malaysia plant that same month ford motor co said it would temporarily shutter the us plant that builds its bestselling pickup truck due to a semiconductorrelated parts shortage caused by the malaysian outbreak thailandthailand imposed tougher restrictions in july and august