The outbound shipments of teleconferencing equipment and components from South Korea have soared to 10% in the past weeks as many employees around the globe are forced to work from home to slow the spread of the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19).
South Korea’s major export, semiconductors, also rose to 20.3% this month compared to a 15.4% increase in February, according to the country’s customs service data.
“Demand from cloud computing firms have boosted sales of server chips, while an increase in telecommuting in the United States and China has also been a main drive to huge server demand,” a ministry official said.
Analysts said that despite the economic slump and drop in revenues of major businesses, the performance at chipmakers and electronics firms seems to be benefiting from the new work setup.
Most companies from Asia, Europe and the United States have asked their staff to work remotely as a precautionary measure against the rapidly-spreading disease.
Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities said data centers should prepare bigger pipes to carry the traffic with the increase in demand as more people work and study from home due to the implemented lockdowns and quarantines.
Aside from South Korea, another East Asian country has also seen an increase in demand for teleworking devices. Japan’s electronic retailers Dynabook and NEC Corp have boosted sales of laptops and embedded speakers.
Australia’s largest home entertainment retailer JB Hifi Ltd also shared that it has been responding to rising demand in appliances and devices from both commercial and retail customers.
