It's now been months since the health crisis emerged from Wuhan, China, first gripping a large swath of that country before moving overseas and creating what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said is the likelihood of a pandemic. The risk is still low in the U.S., despite reports of cases in several states and deaths now occurring on domestic soil.
Doing business in this atmosphere is fraught with volatility as managers try to strike a balance between being prudent and cautious. Many in the U.S. still live far from the limited domestic outbreaks, but health experts warn the virus is going to spread.
"There is an effect. First you have Chinese New Year followed by the coronavirus outbreak," he said. "At the very least, three weeks of product was taken out of the industry."
The company's manufacturing sites are in Weihai, far from Wuhan, about the distance between Dallas and Boston, Cicero said. "Triangle was fairly lucky. Our plant is back up. We're building and we're shipping. I consider ourselves one of the fortunate ones."
Even for a company like Triangle in the U.S., getting a clear, big picture out of China can be difficult.
Cicero said his U.S.-based sales staff has received a handful of inquiries from competitors' customers asking about supply in light of the global uncertainty.
"It's out there. There's a thread out there of concern about supply," he said. "It's more or less just that there may be some shortages out there. Yes, we are in pretty good shape. You order, we'll ship."
At the Tire Industry Association, CEO Roy Littlefield III said his trade group is keeping a close eye on coronavirus developments as they could have an impact on his organization's event scheduling. TIA members meet around the country and around the world, so any virus outbreaks or travel restrictions could impact the organization.
"We're very concerned about it. All we can do right now is monitor it and be safe and careful," Littlefield said. "We haven't canceled anything yet. But we certainly are developing plans in case something like that happens."
TIA just held its Off-the-Road Tire Conference in Indian Wells, Calif., and fears of the virus did not dampen attendance, he said, as people from 40 states and 14 countries attended.
"Of all the people who registered, only one did not come and that person was from China and could not get out," Littlefield said.
TIA's office in Bowie, Md., is a busy place, he said. "If you ever come to our office, the phone rings off the hook on a daily basis," Littlefield said. "As an association, we have not gotten one call yet on this from our membership," which he said totals just fewer than 14,000 members.
Tires still are being shipped from all over the world, he said, as people watch the situation unfold. "I think, right now, people are fascinated by it, not in a positive way. They are watching it," Littlefield said.
The status of the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association Show scheduled for the first week of November is in the back of many people's minds right now as uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus continues. The event includes a tire component put on by TIA.
At SEMA, Stuart Gosswein said his organization is keeping its ear to the ground but has not heard of any impact at this point. "We're closely monitoring the situation, staying in close contact with government officials and industry," the senior director of federal government affairs said.
The past two years of trade wars and tariffs that have impacted commerce between China and the U.S., in some ways, helped prepare the industry for the potential impact of the virus, Gosswein said.
"This is different but, in a funny way, related. It is an extension of supply chain disruption, or potential supply chain disruption," he said. "We're concerned about any potential impact that's out there."
Along with the big Las Vegas gathering, SEMA members are involved in many international activities. "We're also doing export fairs. We have a number of SEMA members going over to China as a delegation or going to the Middle East," he said. "So we are monitoring that as to how it impacts u%oming export fairs that we participate in."
The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association represents 13 companies with 58 tire-related manufacturing locations spread across 17 states.
CEO Anne Forristall Luke recently released this statement:
"U.S. tire manufacturers' first priority is ensuring the safety and well-being of their employees. As such, our members are continuing to closely monitor information from local and federal officials including the Centers for Disease Control guidelines for preventing the spread of respiratory viruses and will continue to do so as the situation develops," she said.
Countless people around the world are using face masks to help prevent spread of disease. But health officials have been advising that masks do not help protect people from becoming sick. They do help those who are already sick from spreading their germs, however.
This widespread misunderstanding is helping fuel a run on personal protective equipment, including masks, that's causing the World Health Organization to ask both companies and governments to increase production.
The burgeoning shortage, in some cases, is impacting health care workers' access to supplies including masks, respirators, goggles, face shields, gowns, aprons and gloves, the WHO said.
The WHO describes the situation as a "severe and mounting disruption of the global supply" of such products.
This increased demand, which includes "panic buying, hoarding and misuse—is putting lives at risk," the agency said.
"Without secure supply chains, the risk to health care workers around the world is real," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. "Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding."
Prices in some markets have increased by six times for surgical masks, tripled for respirators and doubled for gowns, the WHO said.
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