KUALA LUMPUR (March 29): PIE Industrial Bhd said today its wholly-owned Pan-International Electronics (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (PIESB) had temporarily closed its factories in Penang until April 2 (Friday) after some of its employees were tested positive for Covid-19 during the planned screening test.
The company said it had commended its planned precautionary Covid-19 testing on March 23 for PIESB’s foreign and local employees.
After several employees tested positive for Covid-19 in two facilities, PIE Industrial temporarily closed the factories from March 23 as an immediate response to protect the health and safety of the workforce and the community at large.
According to the company’s website, the operations of PIESB are located in the Seberang Jaya Industrial Estate in Penang, with a workforce of about 700 people. PIESB principally provides one-stop contract electronic manufacturing for the computer, electronics and telecommunications industries.
During the temporary closure, the management is undertaking thorough disinfection and sanitisation procedures for the affected facilities.
In addition, the company has notified all employees as well as PIE Industrial’s suppliers and customers of the confirmed cases of Covid-19.
“The affected employees are currently receiving appropriate treatment at designated government facilities as directed by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and all primary contacts of the affected employees have been identified,” PIE Industrial added.
Nevertheless, the company is confident that any backlogs due to the shutdown will be resolved promptly upon resuming operations.
Also, it said the temporary closure of the factories will not have any material impact on the group’s revenue and earnings for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2021 (FY21).
The share price of PIE Industrial dropped seven sen or 2.01% to RM3.41 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.31 billion, with 534,400 shares traded.
Nonetheless, compared to its last year March's low of 85 sen, the stock has rallied a whopping 301%.