SHANGHAI, Apr 28 (SMM) - Recently, under the active promotion of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, a number of enterprises in the Shanghai area that stopped the production due to the COVID-19 pandemic have shown signs of resuming work and production, especially the automotive industry chain which is particularly concerned by the outside world. Let us have a detailed look into the whole progress since mid-April. 

[CPCA: New energy passenger car sales in Shanghai maintained a considerable share of 47% in the first quarter]

April 26 – China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on April 26 that despite the impact of raw material price hikes, chip supply shortages, geopolitical instability, contracting subsidies for new energy vehicles and resurging pandemic after Chinese New Year, new energy passenger car sales still achieved a result of 58,000 units in Shanghai in the first quarter of 2022, in a time when the prices of new energy vehicle products have generally risen by 5,000-10,000 yuan. The share of new energy vehicles remained at a high of 47%, nearly half of the new car market.

[Car companies in Shanghai are resuming work: The first batch of workers recovering from COVID infection have already been at work]

April 24 - Frontline employees at Quanta (Shanghai) Computer Co. said, "We have been back to work for four days, and more than 2,000 employees are now focusing on facilitating the production of Tesla motherboards and Apple Mac computer lines."

The automotive industry in Shanghai was once halted due to the pandemic. When the call to resume work and production blew, the frontline workers hurrayed with excitement: "Finally, we can resume work!" In addition, the employee also said that wages during this period were also higher than usual, with double the usual wage on weekdays, triple on weekends and even higher on holidays.

[Approximately 25% of employees at NIO’s Technical Research Centre return to work]

April 25 - A total of 60 local enterprises in Anting Town, Jiading District, Shanghai, have been included in the "white list" as to resume the production with priority, and the majority of which are leading enterprises in the automotive industry chain, including NIO.

 [Xinpeng Industry: Auto parts plant in Shanghai is resuming work in an orderly manner]

April 25 - Xinpeng Industry announced on its official website that its auto parts plant in Shanghai is resuming work in an orderly manner, and the metal ware plant is also actively preparing for production resumption.

 [60 enterprises in Anting Town, Shanghai resume work and production, the vast majority of which are key enterprises in the automotive industry chain]

April 23 – According to the latest news, in the context of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission's issuance of the Pandemic Prevention and Control Guidelines for Industrial Enterprises to Resume Work and Production in Shanghai (First Edition), the first batch of the "white list" of enterprises allowed to resume work and production with priority has been released, involving 60 local enterprises, the majority of which are core enterprises in the automotive industry chain.

[70% of Key Enterprises Have Resumed the Production in Shanghai from COVID]

April 22 - Shanghai held a press conference on the prevention and control of the pandemic at 10:00 a.m. local time on April 22. Zhang Wei, vice mayor of Shanghai, said that after weeks of efforts, 70% of the first batch of 666 key enterprises, included in the Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 Pandemic for Industrial Enterprises Resuming Work and Production in Shanghai, have successfully resumed work and production, and the capacity utilisation rate of enterprises is also increasing. SAIC, Tesla and other finished vehicle enterprises have achieved finished vehicles off the production line, and related supporting enterprises like car parts manufacturers have also resumed work one after another. The capacity utilisation rate of integrated circuits and top-tier chemical enterprises is also maintained at a high level.

 [Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory resumed work on April 19]

April 19 – Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory, which had been closed for nearly three weeks, resumed work on April 19, with 8,000 employees arriving early in the morning. According to Tesla, the company is currently making every effort to coordinate with more than 100 component manufacturers in the upstream and downstream industry chain to support the resumption of work and production.

There is news that Tesla Shanghai’s resumption of work involves 14 upstream supporting enterprises in Fengxian District in Shanghai, all of which have now obtained approval and started to resume work and production.

From March 28 to April 19, Tesla Shanghai has been shut down for 17 days, which SMM expects may result in a loss of production of around 42,500 new energy vehicles.

[SAIC's passenger car plant in Lingang Special Area achieves first vehicle off the production line after completing stress test for resumption of work and production]

April 19 - SAIC achieved the first vehicle off the production line in its passenger car plant in Lingang Special Area on April 19 after completing pressure test for resumption of work and production. Regarding the following production plan, the person in charge of SAIC Lingang Base said, "Starting from April 19, the plant will plan to adopt a single-shift working system. And if the supply chain can remain stable, we also hope to gradually ramp up the production to the pre-pandemic level as soon as possible. SAIC Lingang base will also coordinate with all resources through all possible means in an attempt to deliver the projects as scheduled."

[CATL Already Resumes the Production of its Shanghai Production Base from COVID-forced Shutdown]

April 22 - CATL said to the public a few days ago that its factory in Shanghai Lingang Special Area – Ruiting Contemporary Amperex Technology (Shanghai) Limited - has resumed work and production on April 18.

Information shows that CATL signed a cooperation agreement with Shanghai Lingang Special Area in August 2021. According to the Agreement, the project will take advantage of CATL' advanced extreme manufacturing system and experience in building global lighthouse factories to build a green and efficient smart factory in the Area and optimise the layout of the new energy industry, while also address key issues such as mileage anxiety and fast charging.

[Emergency supply transit shipment station (Zhejiang-Shanghai) for the Yangtze River Delta region officially put into operation]

Recently, under the efforts of coordinated prevention and control mechanism, the Yangtze River Delta Emergency Supply Transit Shipment Station (Zhejiang-Shanghai) was officially put into operation by the full cooperation of Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai Municipality.

It is reported that the transit shipment station is built and operated by SAIC Anji Logistics Co. The logistics company is a global leader in auto parts and vehicle logistics, with a distribution network covering more than 600 cities in China and over 100 countries overseas.

This transit shipment station (Zhejiang-Shanghai) will promote inter-provincial circulation of important materials, and unblock the Yangtze River Delta regional freight "blood vessels", to achieve efficient cross-regional shipment. Among the first batch of six transit shipment stations, 4 have been completed with two in Shanghai and two in Zhejiang, and the remaining two in Jiangsu are under construction.

It is worth mentioning that the car companies in Shanghai are not the only ones suffering from the ravages of the pandemic. According to the latest news on April 21, Guangzhou Auto Honda, Guangzhou Auto Toyota, Dongfeng Nissan and other major vehicle production companies have seen some production lines shut down or semi-suspended due to the pandemic emanating from the mainland and rising raw material prices, which have had an obvious impact on industrial production in Guangzhou. According to the person in charge of GAC Group, since March, confirmed COVID cases have emerged in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, leading to the suspension of production of many parts suppliers and closure of sales outlets, which has posed a great challenge to the production and operation of GAC Group and its invested enterprises.