Photo credit:Xinhua News Agency
■ Xia Jinbiao, reporter of China Economic Times
The epidemic has repeatedly and continuously impacted the automotive supply chain, and many car companies such as FAW-Volkswagen, Weilai, Great Wall Tank, and Tesla have had to press the "pause button".
The good news is coming, though. Since April 18, SAIC Motor has launched a stress test for resuming work and production, and sachinia passenger cars, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, Huayu Automobile and other vehicle and parts companies under the group are making preparations to meet the production conditions under the epidemic prevention conditions. On April 14, the epidemic prevention and control in Jilin Province achieved zero social clearance, China FAW has fully started to resume work, and the first batch of 47 parts and components enterprises are resuming work in an orderly manner.
Since the beginning of March this year, due to the impact of the epidemic in many parts of the country, automobile production in many epidemic control areas has been under great pressure, especially Shanghai and Changchun as "hardest hit areas". Shanghai and Changchun are home to the headquarters of SAIC and FAW, respectively, and are also the main producers of mainland automobiles. At present, a number of car companies have stopped production or reduced production, including FAW Toyota, FAW-Volkswagen, etc., Changchun's five major vehicle factories and some Shanghai vehicle factories represented by Tesla. Among them, the supply of the automobile supply chain is an important reason affecting the production of the whole vehicle.
It is understood that the automotive supply chain involves eight major manufacturing systems, tens of thousands of parts, and is one of the industrial chains with the longest chain and the highest management difficulty in almost all industrial supply chains. The data shows that the Yangtze River Delta region, where Shanghai is located, accounts for about 21.6% of domestic automobile production, and the added value of the automobile industry accounts for 31.2%. Shanghai not only has many vehicle manufacturing enterprises investing in and building factories here, but also covers the upstream and downstream of the automobile industry chain. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 600 auto parts companies above designated size in Shanghai, including Bosch, ZF, Michelin, MAHLE and other well-known auto parts enterprises, plus small and micro enterprises, and there are more than 20,000 auto parts companies in Shanghai.
At present, the epidemic has caused a certain adverse impact on the automotive industry. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in March this year, the retail sales of the mainland passenger car market reached 1.579 million units, down 10.5% year-on-year; the cumulative retail sales from January to March were 4.915 million units, down 4.5% year-on-year, down 230,000 units year-on-year, and the overall trend was lower than expected. The industry expects that due to the long automotive supply chain, high coordination requirements, and a wider range of production and production radiation in the core production and logistics bases, the pressure on production and sales in the automobile market in April may be very large. The industry is worried that if the automotive supply chain problem is not solved, it may lead to a sharp reduction in production or production stoppage by automakers across the country in May.
In fact, the relevant departments have attached great importance to the adverse impact of the epidemic on the automotive supply chain. On April 11, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially launched the "Automotive Industry Chain Supply Chain Smooth Coordination Platform", through which information exchanges on practical problems in the resumption of work and production, logistics and transportation, etc., establishes a problem demand and feedback mechanism for enterprises in the automotive industry chain supply chain, and timely coordinates and solves the practical difficulties faced by enterprises in production and operation. On April 15, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a special meeting to ensure the stable production of key enterprises and the smooth operation of key industrial chains, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology sent the Shanghai Forward Working Group to promote the stable production and resumption of work and production of key industrial enterprises with relevant departments in Shanghai to ensure the smooth operation of the industrial chain supply chain.
On April 16, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology formulated and issued the Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the Epidemic in Shanghai Industrial Enterprises resuming Work and Production (First Edition), which includes 21 articles in five aspects, including the implementation of the main responsibility of enterprises, the implementation of the classification management of places, the strengthening of enterprise employee management, the strengthening of logistics management and the reserve of epidemic prevention materials. Promote the stable production and resumption of work and production of key industrial enterprises, ensure the smooth operation of the industrial chain supply chain, and concentrate resources to give priority to ensuring the resumption of work and production of 666 key enterprises in key industries such as integrated circuits, automobile manufacturing, equipment manufacturing, and biomedicine.
It is foreseeable that with the orderly resumption of work and production of automobile enterprises and the active efforts of relevant government departments, the automobile supply chain is expected to be opened up, and the automobile industry will come out of the "darkest moment".
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Producer 丨 Wang Hui Li Piguang Wang Yu Liu Weimin
Chief Editor 丨 Mao Jinghui Editor 丨 Chen Shuhan
