Computer manufacturer Lenovo Group Ltd. will increase output at its factories outside China — including those in Mexico, India, Brazil and the U.S. — in response to reduced production in China linked to COVID-19, the South China Morning Post reports. The company's manufacturing facility in Hubei province has remained closed.

Lenovo will not be the only laptop manufacturer needing to rearrange its supply chain in response to COVID-19-related disruptions. Panjiva's data shows that 92.1% of U.S. imports of laptop computers were sourced from China in 2019, with Vietnam representing 5.0% and Taiwan 1.8% of machines by number.

Aside from Lenovo, Panjiva's U.S. seaborne import data shows other major laptop shippers from China include HP Inc. with predominantly all the 1,900 TEUs associated with the firm having been sourced from China in 2019, centered on Chongqing province.

Dell Technologies Inc. may have started to diversify with China representing 97.0% of the 980 TEUs linked to the firm in 2019, centered on Jiangsu. ASUSTeK Computer Inc. is somewhat more diversified with China — specifically Guangdong — representing 81.4% of the 441 TEUs associated with the company while Singapore provided the remainder.

The move should prove out the flexibility of Lenovo's supply chain for both laptop computers and computer monitors, which has been steadily adjusted during the period of the imposition of tariffs, as outlined in Panjiva's research of Aug. 15. Panjiva's data for U.S. seaborne imports and Mexican exports by all transportation modes shows China represented 65.4% of Lenovo-related imports to the U.S. in 2019, down from 80.1% in 2016. The company has also started to ramp up shipments from Mexico — which accounted for 28.9% of the total — and Taiwan.

Christopher Rogers is a senior researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.