Lockdown as staff pulled from China, travel banned

The nation’s biggest companies have cut non-essential travel to China because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Masked paramilitary police stand guard at Hongqioa train station in China. Picture: AFP

The nation’s biggest companies have cancelled or cut back non-essential travel to and within China as miners, exporters and firms in the travel sector brace for the potentially devastating impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

They join a wave of international companies taking precautions around exposure to China, in a move that is expected to be felt across the global economy.

Even so, global markets staged a partial rebound from Tuesday’s sharp selldown, even as confirmed deaths from the coronavirus outbreak in China rose. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5 per cent to 7031.5 points after diving as much as 1.7 per cent after the long weekend.

Major miners including BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue confirmed they had cancelled non-­essential travel to China.

They have also closed their Shanghai offices until February 10, in line with directives issued on Monday by the provincial government. BHP has advised employees to limit their travel in China to business-critical trips.

While BHP remains in contact with its customers and logistics partners, it is still waiting to determine any operational impact of the outbreak.

Late Wednesday British Airways suspended bookings on its website for direct flights from London to Beijing and Shanghai until March, after warnings over travel to China due to the coronavirus outbreak.

At the same time, Qantas joint venture Jetstar Asia suspended services to three Chinese cities.

Singapore-based Jetstar Asia said it was seeing a drop in demand on flights to mainland China.

As of Wednesday Qantas was continuing to operate five services a week between Beijing and Sydney and daily flights to Shanghai.

The Beijing services are due to cease in March and Qantas boss Alan Joyce said they could end those early, depending on load factors.

“We’ll continue to review the loads daily, as we normally do,” Mr Joyce said.

Speaking in Toowoomba, Mr Joyce said he expected the airline to withstand any downturn in international travel as a result of the coronavirus outbreak but conceded it was still “early days”.

Elsewhere ANZ said it was closely monitoring all staff travel within the region, making sure only essential business travel was considered.

“If any staff travelled to Hubei Province for holidays and Lunar New Year, we are asking them to self-quarantine for two weeks before returning to the office,’’ a spokesman said.

“Staff are being advised to take precautionary hygiene measures, and to seek medical advice if they experience any symptoms.”

ANZ’s move came after AMP said it was reviewing all “non-essential travel” across Asia, while the big four consulting firms are asking partners and staff who have visited the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province to quarantine themselves.

Westpac has done similarly, asking staff who have travelled to the affected areas or who have come into contact with those diagnosed with the disease to work from home for 14 days.

Telstra has put a stop to any staff from Australia flying into China, with no travel scheduled.

The telco doesn’t have any staff located in mainland China. However, it does have a number of Australian staff in Hong Kong.

M A R KE T S

Telstra does not have any plans to bring these people back to Australia.

Tim Cook, the chief executive of global tech giant Apple, told investors on a earnings update that the company was limiting travel to China because of the health crisis and had reduced store operating hours in the country. Property companies with staff in China are also taking precautions. Global giant the Goodman Group has about 240 staff in China, and they have been asked to work remotely until February 17, with the ­company monitoring the situation after that period.

Goodman said it had advised its staff to stay home, and business travel was also suspended until it had more information available.

This included travel between offices in China and overseas.

Exporters to China such as Treasury Wines have been hit hard by the virus outbreak, coming at what is usually a time of peak demand associated with Chinese New Year.

Listed dairy brand A2 Milk is urging its workforce in China to limit movements outside of its head office in Shanghai in an effort to shield themselves against the virus outbreak.

The Australian and New Zealand listed company has issued a memo to all staff in China, warning them against travelling outside Shanghai and into the regions.

A2 has also banned staff across its other global sites, including Australia and New Zealand, from travelling to China to limit any contact with the deadly virus.

An A2 spokesman said the company was taking steps to ensure business was continuing as usual in China, including minimising disruption to its distribution channels, via China State Farm Holding Shanghai Company Limited (CSFA).

CSFA has been A2’s exclusive import agent for the company’s infant nutrition products into mainland China since 2013.

In addition to importation services, it has provided local market regulation consulting and product traceability quality control for the company.

“We are working closely with our local partner, China State Farm Holding Shanghai Company Limited, on how we can assist with the distribution of our products to consumers in affected areas, and how we can best provide humanitarian assistance to Chinese citizens at this time,” the spokesman said.

Corporate Travel Management, whose shares have fallen by as much as 15 per cent since the coronavirus outbreak, said it was too early to determine the impact of the virus.

CTM managing director Jamie Pherous said while business activity would continue, he acknowledged the leisure sector could be impacted.

But he said the latter represented only a small part of CTM’s business.

“It is too early to call. It’s a function of when they resolve it.

“The difference between corporate and leisure is corporate has to do business, whereas leisure may not go back to a region for an extended period of time,” he said.

“The Asian region is currently in Chinese New Year holidays ... this period is historically the quietest time of the year for corporate activity in Asia.”

CTM said most of its Hong Kong and Singapore based staff are on annual leave while its skeleton staff in Greater China were working from home.

additional reporting: Lisa Allen and Nick Evans