An almost month-long lockdown of Shanghai has fueled heightened worries about the fallout to the entire automotive industry chain. Officials from Jiading District, the city’s famous “car town,” are releasing policies to reassure the public and hasten the speed of car production to come back to life.
Shanghai held a Covid-19 prevention conference on April 24, where Li Feng, deputy governor of the city’s Jiading District, briefed the public on the resumption of work and production within the famous “car town,” especially its iconic automobile industry.
According to a preliminary list of 666 key enterprises that were allowed to resume work and production in Shanghai, Jiading has 125, of which 97 are related to the automotive industry chain.
To date, 49 out of 73 firms in Jiading have resumed production. All of them are auto-related firms.
Since the citywide lockdown was imposed in April, 211 industrial companies in Jiading have kept producing behind closed doors, with nearly 50,000 workers on the job. And the percentage of firms that reported cases of infection is below 5%.
Recently, new work schedules and specific guidelines were also released to make sure closed factories can continue production and accelerate the pace of some factories' return to work. The list of the second batch of key companies is also being drawn.
Jiading in northern Shanghai is best known for its international “automobile city,” an expansive network of auto supply chain companies and China’s first and only Formula One racetrack.
Some entrepreneurs are calling for an earlier resumption of production in Shanghai, citing the impact of Covid-19 on the auto industry of the city and beyond.
He Xiaopeng, founder and CEO of XPeng, a top EV maker, voiced concerns a week ago about the potentially “devastating” effects of the prolonged lockdown.
“If supply chain companies in Shanghai and the adjoining areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, the manufacturing of all of China's carmakers may come to a halt in May,” said He.