Chinese products going scarce in Nigeria as Coronavirus fears pause production
The recent outbreak of the deadly coronavirus has continued to send panic through global markets, with oil prices falling to one-year lows following massive pause in manufacturing activities in mainland China.
Accordingly, the ripple effects include massive drop in the availability of Chinese products which has jerked up prices of available ones.
Many of the essential materials used in-house including torch-lights and other basic household Chinese products have had their prices jump since last week and may soar this week.
A dealer at Article Shopping Complex, Badagry Expressway told our correspondent that “We have been informed by the factory (name with held) in China that they are no more producing and even if they are to resume production, it will take months to test run the production lines before steady production is assured.”
“A small torch-light we sell for N250 before the Coronavirus is now sold at N600 and above while bigger torches that formally go for N800 is now over N1,000.
According to the dealer, “I is not our fault. It’s from the signals we are getting from China as we speak”.
“You are aware that no importer is placing any kind of orders to China for good imports because of coronavirus.
As at the weekend, China has recorded over 800,000 deaths with over 30,000 cases. Brent, the global oil benchmark, has slumped 20.2% YTD to USD54.93pb (6 February 2019) as traders reacted to the magnitude of the health crisis.
