Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
Just last night, the auto industry sounded the first alarm for 2022.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, posted on Weibo: "If the supply chain enterprises in Shanghai and the surrounding areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all Chinese automakers may have to stop work and production in May." After speaking, He Xiaopeng also attached a crying expression.
▲He Xiaopeng Weibo
This morning, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Terminal BG and CEO of CheBU, quoted He Xiaopeng in the circle of friends and said: "If Shanghai continues to fail to resume work and production, all technology/industrial industries involving Shanghai's supply chain will be completely shut down, especially the automotive industry!" ”
▲Yu Chengdong circle of friends
In addition, since last month, SAIC-Volkswagen, Tesla, Weilai and other car companies have stopped production briefly from time to time, making the domestic vehicle manufacturing industry very nervous, and the suspension of vehicle production seems to have gradually expanded from the Yangtze River Delta region to the whole country.
Today, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a special meeting to convey the spirit of the special conference on ensuring the smooth flow of goods and the stability of the industrial chain supply chain, and to study and implement work measures. The meeting stressed that all efforts should be made to accurately prevent and control the epidemic, ensure the smooth flow of goods and stabilize the industrial chain supply chain, and take multiple measures to ensure the stable production of key enterprises and the smooth operation of key industrial chains.
So, what exactly is the problem in vehicle manufacturing, and can the supply chain enterprises around the Yangtze River Delta still produce and deliver normally? On these issues, Che dong dong talked with senior media personalities from Tier 1 suppliers, chip companies, automotive electronics companies and automotive supply chains, and found answers to the questions.
First, why can Shanghai affect the whole country?
The Yangtze River Delta region is a key area of the mainland automobile industry, in recent years, Shanghai Automobile has an annual output of nearly 3 million vehicles, and the annual output of cars in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui is also one million units.
Therefore, the Yangtze River Delta region also has a perfect layout of the automobile industry chain, and Shanghai is also a central city integrating import and export, sales and research and development, and its important position is self-evident.
Since the vehicle manufacturing industry is quite developed, Shanghai and its surrounding areas also have a fairly complete automobile supply chain system.
▲Bosch China Headquarters Building
For example, Bosch, one of the world's largest automotive suppliers, has set up its Chinese headquarters in Shanghai and has auto parts production plants in Suzhou and Wuxi. At the same time, NXP, Qualcomm and other major suppliers of automotive electronic components will also set up R&D, sales and other parts in Shanghai.
Therefore, when the number of new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in Shanghai continues to rise, any part cannot be sent to the car company in time, and the car cannot be built. This is also the direct reason why He Xiaopeng and Yu Chengdong respectively sounded the supply chain danger warning.
Second, production and logistics are difficult The Yangtze River Delta region is affected
Although Shanghai's parts industry is very important, it can also be noted that some Tier 1 factories are located in the surrounding area of Shanghai, so why is the supply of parts still affected?
Zhu Yulong, editor-in-chief of Automotive Electronics Design, believes that the shortage of parts in the Tier 1 factory around Shanghai is mainly due to the interruption of the production chain and the interruption of logistics.
For example, the production of an automotive ECU has a considerable number of chips, PCB boards, are provided by different upstream suppliers, and the upstream suppliers have considerable links with the Yangtze River Delta. Zhu Yulong said that if there is a shortage and interruption in one of the links in the supply chain, the entire ECU cannot be produced, and the shortage of parts cannot be simply replaced by other suppliers, which makes Tier 1 unable to supply to car companies.
▲A certain Bosch ECU
Another example is that a company that produces car seat skins is in Suzhou, but its raw material polyurethane comes from Jinshan, Shanghai. The suspension of work in Shanghai Jinshan means that the seat company in Suzhou cannot build seats, and car companies cannot get off the line without seats.
Zhu Yulong pointed out that there was a shortage of chips in the automotive industry last year, and some car companies used the method of reducing allocation to ensure the delivery of cars. But now the situation is very different, if there is a shortage of raw materials for the automobile industry such as metal parts and plastic parts, it means that the mechanical structure of the automobile is incomplete, and the car companies do not even have the method of simplifying this "curve car".
Therefore, even for some tier1s whose factories are not in Shanghai, production will be interrupted due to the shutdown of local Tier 2 and Tier3 suppliers in Shanghai.
At the same time, many industry insiders have also highlighted the problem of logistics. Now the logistics price around Shanghai has soared, and the transportation price of bicycles from Nanjing to Shanghai has risen to 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, and the logistics cost is quite high, and parts companies and car companies cannot afford such high logistics costs.
In other words, even the completed parts cannot be delivered to OEMs.
A similar situation has emerged at Tier 1 Joyson Electronics in Shanghai.
A manager of Joyson Electronics told Che dong that the production and delivery of many factories of Joyson Electronics have been affected. Before the factory was closed for management, the factory gathered a small number of employees to stay in the factory to ensure production.
▲Joyson Electronics workers are stationed in the factory to ensure production
The most serious problem is logistics. "There is no logistics." This is Joyson Electronics' description of the current situation. And now still insist on the front line of production workers, only to be able to resume logistics, the first time to deliver to the car company.
A Tier 1 industry insider revealed to Che Dong that the production of major safety parts for automobiles at this stage is not obvious, but there is indeed a shortage of upstream parts supply. The main reason is the difficulty of entering the customs of imported parts and components.
He noted that at this stage, imported components would opt in from other gates. For example, if you choose Guangdong customs entry, you need a long period of transportation to the production plant after the completion of the customs entry, in addition to the cost increase, the logistics cycle is too long and also affects the production progress.
An auto chip company executive told Che Dong that Shanghai's position is also quite important for automotive chips. For example, the core production line of some key power and logic devices is in Shanghai and the surrounding area, while Shanghai is also a distribution and technical support center for imported chips, many internationally renowned automotive chip suppliers' chips and some raw materials are mostly real or virtual customs from Shanghai, and then distribute the demand side through logistics channels, while most of these manufacturers use Shanghai as a base for in-depth technical support for domestic customers.
The current situation means that the relevant production capacity of Shanghai and the surrounding areas will be affected, and the logistics and import and export of chip companies and technical support will also be seriously affected.
Third, inventory can temporarily support production There are also different voices in the industry
Pictures circulating inside the Joyson Electronics Factory show that a small number of employees are still working on their posts in the past two days. Due to the closed management of the factory, the floor is laid in the office at night. In a large office, 5 "beds" were simply set up.
▲ Joyson electronic workers lay floors in the office
This means that production can continue.
According to reports, Joyson Electronics Factory has a certain amount of materials, and there is no shortage of raw materials at this stage. However, due to the fact that most of the workers have not returned to the factory, coupled with the slowdown in demand from Shanghai and surrounding automakers, the production speed of Joyson Electronics has slowed down significantly.
According to the production situation of Joyson Electronics at this stage, Shanghai and surrounding vehicle companies can also supply in a timely manner after resuming production.
At the same time, an industry insider working at Tier 1 also told The Car Thing that the supply chain industry is actually not so tight now, and it will not stop production in May.
This is because at this stage, there are still some stock parts in the Tier 1 factory, and the factories around Shanghai can still produce normally. However, if sub-suppliers such as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cannot resume production for a long time, it will gradually affect the supply capacity of Tier 1. However, tier 1's interruption in supply will not come immediately.
Conclusion: China's automotive industry is facing a big test
After the chip shortage since the end of 2020, China's automotive industry is facing another test, that is, the shortage of auto parts produced in the Yangtze River Delta region. If the chip shortage can be solved by reducing the allocation, this shortage will really make the whole vehicle completely discontinued.
Obviously, the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on the automotive industry is still continuing, and china's automotive industry will continue to improve itself and become stronger after facing one big test after another.