Impact of covid 19 on multinational companies MNCs (such as BHP, Rio tinto ) business around the world

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MNCs in Post Covid19 Business World: An Appraisal
Introduction
    The impacts of pandemic outbreaks in the history over mankind have been massive; they have affected the overall functioning at political, social and most importantly, at economical level. The outbreak of Spanish flu killed millions of people in 19th century and the outbreak was too strong to control. What makes this pandemic outbreak sensitive is that it is felt at global level; multiple societies and economies fall directly under its impact. In 19th century, the nations affected by Spanish flu were able to constrain he virus into their national premises. However, the conditions have dramatically changed in the modern context of another pandemic outbreak, the Novel Corona Virus, Covid19. Having said to be originated from Wuhan, China, the virus outbreak has shattered the global economy. The preventive measures to this virus are social distancing and isolated state of living of human beings because it spread at extremely rapid pace, when people come in close contact of each other.
    Therefore, in an era of globalization when national boundaries have diminished and MNCs constantly work on expanding their business from one nation to the other, Covid19 has given the impact of seizing their business activities randomly. The situation can be compared to some high speed car running on a highway and suddenly it is put on breaks. Something similar has happened to the global business world, if it is seen from close perspective. In fact, Covid19 pandemic outbreak has worked as a leveler; it has affected the small, medium or large scale business organizations in the same way. The productions were either closed for a while or the companies were forced to limit their productions and sales with limited number of staff hired due to the guidelines of world health organization.
However, the business world—like the common societies and people—has started adjusting with the changed norms. While virus is still active and a number of cases are getting registered each day, the post Covid19 situation for the business world has changed. There is a new phase of production, sales and marketing which is now depending largely on technical advancements. Technology, in other words, has a great role to play in order to shift the business and sales of the MNCs on to virtual platforms instead of having physical ones.
The Conceptual Change: Sourcing China as the Supplier and Manufacturer
    The spread of the corona virus would influence the global economy, in addition to major health issues. China, as the world’s largest supply chain managing nation, became vulnerable to the origin of Covid19. In January 2020, in order to stop corona virus transmission, most of the Chinese production companies went under shutdown especially located in Wuhan region Many have remained closed, though the companies hoped to be reopened in the coming months. According to Dun & Bradstreet, these factories make everything from drugs to car parts to electronics, and their shutdown has interrupted the work routine of approximately 60 million Chinese workers (Dentons, 2020).
    Many perceptions go with the theory that the Covid19 outbreak is alike to SAARS outbreak in the first decade of 20th century. But this analogy is deceptive because, in the past 18 years, China's relative prominence in the global economy has increased tremendously. In that period, the ratio of trading and shares with the global economies are doubled for China, and many more sectors are now heavily dependent on its economy. As a result, almost every Fortune 1000 company has experienced an interruption of their routine business operations due to the corona virus. Multinational corporations are facing the stark reality in almost every sector that business cannot go on as normal. In addition, economists have warned that the outbreak of the corona virus could cost the global economy an estimated $1.1 trillion in lost revenue. For the first time since the end of 2008, when a shock to the financial market triggered chaos for companies around the world, some expect that the after-effects of the epidemic would cause the global economy to contract this quarter (Dentons, 2020).
    In order to alleviate the corona virus effect, several countries intend to introduce stimulus packages. The Federal Reserve reduced interest rates by half a percentage point on March 3, 2020; the first unplanned, emergency rate cut since 2008, and the biggest one-time cut since that time. By way of grants and debt relief, the International Monetary Fund has announced it will offer additional funding to developing countries. Such efforts, however, cannot save certain companies and sectors from the significant losses that will inevitably result from a pandemic.
    In particular, experts expect electronics firms, clothing manufacturers and manufacturers of industrial machinery, as well as shipping companies, hospitality chains, airlines, and the luxury goods industry to be among the most affected by the corona virus. The economic slowdown could also derail US plans to increase exports of agricultural produce, energy and manufactured goods to China, delaying any real recovery of the US-China trade relationship in the distressed farm and rust belts and other areas of the US economy. A summary of those sectors we expect to be hardest hit by the outbreak of the corona virus is below.
Covid19 and Regulation of the International Enterprises
    The COVID-19 pandemic has been a new thing that will have enduring policy implications over the control of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) pursued by multinational enterprises (MNEs). The discovery of the virus itself is new to the world, as per the declaration of the WHO, unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. COVID-19 is now a pandemic that affects many nations worldwide. This has had some immediate impact on FDI flows and on policies for state investment and trade (Muchlinski, 2020).
    The flows of FDI are...