WAIT times are up on electronic repairs in Bendigo as parts from China become harder to source.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Phone and computer repair shops say COVID-19 - known as coronavirus - has caused a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing.
But businesses say the shortage is not affecting them seriously.
Smartphone Fix Bendigo senior technician Daniel Hewett said suppliers started to email last month saying parts were likely to take longer to arrive.
Mr Hewett said some electronic parts in Australia would also rise in price because of this.
Smartphone Fix was paying about five to 10 per cent more on parts, depending on the model, he said.
The shortage was more affecting unusual parts, like charging ports or cameras, than common parts, like screens or batteries, he said.
But Mr Hewett said the business hadn't increased prices.
"It's only been marginal if that, so we've sort of worn the cost of that," he said.
Longer wait times for repairs have also lost the shop some customers who couldn't afford to wait.
But Mr Hewett said reports were that things were loosening up in China, meaning stock shipments were beginning to filter through.
He said he was more concerned about what would happen if the coronavirus situation in Australia worsened.
Prototech Computers technician Luke Stone said parts were a bit harder to get, because manufacturers were running at less than capacity, causing prices to rise slightly.
Mr Stone said it was mainly affecting flash storage, which was a quite commonly used part.
He said it had meant a slight delay on some people's computer repairs.
Be.Bendigo chief executive Dennis Bice said it was a bit early to understand what the effect of coronavirus would be on different sectors of the economy.
Mr Bice said Victoria was seeing some slowdown around tourism and parts of the supply chain.
Read more: Researchers identify two coronavirus strains
He said a downturn in the world economy - forecast by some economists - could affect confidence.
Mr Bice said if people didn't have confidence in what was happening in the market, their spending would be affected.
He said if people stopped spending, or doing things, no business would grow.
"While clearly this is a health risk, absolutely, the biggest issue will be around confidence," he said.
"People tend to go into panic mode, and we're seeing this around panic buying at the moment.
"That is the biggest danger, how we play this out around communication around the impacts."
Mr Bice said he didn't think we were at the point of an Australian recession. He said it was unknown how quickly the crises would be cleaned up or go away.
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.