On April 14 and 15, the heads of automobile manufacturing business of many Chinese enterprises, including Huawei and Xiaopeng, made a voice one after another, pointing out that the epidemic situation in Shanghai and other places may lead to a large-scale interruption of supply and shutdown of the supply chain. Frankly, there may be a complete shutdown of the automobile industry in May.
Facing the difficulties faced by logistics and industrial chain supply chain, today, the Ministry of transport, the Ministry of industry and information technology and the people’s Bank of China held a meeting to state that they should implement the spirit of the special meeting of the State Council on ensuring smooth logistics and stable industrial chain supply chain, and resolutely ensure smooth logistics and smooth operation of industrial chain.
car companies have called for emergency
On April 15, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business and CEO of smart car Bu, wrote in the circle of friends that if Shanghai cannot resume work and production, all science and technology and industrial industries involved in Shanghai’s supply chain may stop production after May, especially the automotive industry. He said that since mid April, some enterprises have begun to stop production due to the supply chain interruption caused by the epidemic in Shanghai and other places. If this situation continues, the economic losses and costs of related industries will be great.
He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng automobile, also expressed a similar view on April 14. He issued a document saying that if Shanghai and surrounding supply chain enterprises cannot find a dynamic way to resume production, all vehicle factories in China may have to stop production in May. He Xiaopeng also said that the good news is that at present, relevant ministries and competent departments are doing their best to coordinate, and look forward to more support and joint efforts from the government and competent departments.
Last week, Weilai automobile, which is also a new force in car manufacturing, announced that it would stop production. Li Bin, founder and chairman of Weilai automobile, said that affected by the epidemic, Weilai had cut off the supply of parts in mid March, relying on inventory support until recently. The recent outbreaks in Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places have led to more partners unable to supply and can only suspend production. Li Bin said bluntly: “we are not alone in this situation. Many manufacturers have suspended production.” On April 14, Weilai automobile said again that at present, the supply chain has recovered slightly, and the production base in Hefei is gradually resuming production, but the subsequent production plan also depends on the recovery of the supply chain.
On April 15, it was rumored that Tesla communicated with American investors that it could resume work as early as mid May, which means that the parts supply chain will resume at that time. In this regard, Tesla China officials told the Shanghai Securities News reporter on the afternoon of the 15th that the above rumors are false news.
Tesla China said on March 28 that Tesla has always adhered to the main responsibility of epidemic prevention, strictly implemented various epidemic prevention and control requirements, and arranged work according to the government’s epidemic prevention policy at any time.
Industry experts pointed out that not only the new forces of car making are in urgent need, but also the epidemic has seriously affected the business of traditional car enterprises. Since March, the epidemic situation in Shanghai and Jilin has led to the shutdown of many auto enterprises.
According to the data of the passenger Federation, the output of many traditional car enterprises fell sharply in March. Among them, the output of FAW Hongqi fell 73% year-on-year in March, FAW Volkswagen fell 45.8%, SAIC GM fell 31.3%, Beijing Benz fell 30.7% and brilliance BMW fell 51%. In April, with the further severity of the epidemic and epidemic prevention situation in Shanghai and other places, automobile enterprises are bound to be more and more affected.
closed loop production or difficult to sustain
The relevant person in charge of Zero run automobile told the reporter of Shanghai Securities News that the epidemic had an impact on the supply chain of some parts, and many friends suspended production. However, at present, the whole vehicle production of Zero run automobile is still in normal progress, because the company’s C11, T03 and other models and their core parts are produced in Zhejiang Jinhua factory, which can also resist the supply chain risk at present. The company pays attention to both epidemic prevention and production, and tries its best to ensure delivery.
However, some industry experts pointed out that the situation of zero running cars is not representative. Many car enterprises install parts from the same day to the same day according to orders to maximize benefits. “All the parts should be put indoors, which is definitely not possible in the wind and rain. In addition, how much space does it need to park thousands of new cars produced every day?” Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) .
During the epidemic, some automobile industry chain enterprises are also trying closed-loop production. Including SAIC GM, SAIC Volkswagen and other vehicle enterprises, as well as continental group, Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) and other auto parts enterprises, told the reporter of Shanghai Securities Daily that the company has independent catering and rest conditions, and front-line employees have been producing in a closed environment to ensure Epidemic Prevention recently. However, some companies said that although the company took measures to deal with closed-loop production, the output would still be affected and the reduction was inevitable.
According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, the national automobile output in 2021 was 26.528 million. Among them, the annual automobile output of Shanghai in 2021 was 2.833 million, with an output value of 758.6 billion yuan, accounting for more than 10% of the total national production capacity.
Industry experts pointed out that the vehicle output is only one aspect. For China’s automobile industry, the position of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai represented by Shanghai in the whole supply chain is extremely important. Bosch, mainland China, ZF, anbofu and other international traditional supplier giants are rooted in Shanghai; After SAIC and Tesla set up factories near the port, more than 100 suppliers such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , horizon and Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp(600699) have successively completed the landing around these two automobile enterprises. These key parts enterprises also radiate and supply the whole vehicle enterprises in China. Therefore, if the supply chain is interrupted due to production stagnation or logistics obstruction of these companies, even the closed-loop production of downstream vehicle enterprises is difficult to continue. For example, although ZF’s factory in Puxi, Shanghai is in a closed production state, the transportation interruption caused by poor logistics has affected the production.
Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the Federation, told reporters that the Shanghai epidemic has had a great impact on the supply of key parts of the automobile industry, and these effects are not only reflected in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. If the epidemic continues, it will bring more uncertainty to the national automobile industry chain. In April, the automobile production and marketing environment became more complex, which needs to be paid enough attention.
multi department efforts to ensure smooth logistics
In this regard, on April 15, many departments expressed their determination to ensure smooth logistics and smooth operation of the industrial chain.
The Ministry of transport said that the Ministry of transport implemented the spirit of the special meeting of the State Council on ensuring smooth logistics and the stability of industrial chain supply chain, resolutely unified its thoughts and actions into the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, epidemic prevention and control and ensuring smooth communication, development and safety, and ensured the organic unity of prevention and control, ensuring smooth flow and promoting industry. The meeting stressed the need to make overall arrangements and go all out to do a good job in logistics guarantee and smooth operation; In view of the current problems in some places, such as the overweight of epidemic prevention traffic control layer by layer and “one size fits all”, the blocked passage of trucks, the congestion of highways and other logistics operations, make lists, wall charts, strengthen departmental cooperation and provincial linkage, mobilize the enthusiasm of all localities, departments, enterprises and employees, and timely summarize and publicize the good practices and experiences of all localities, departments and units; Strengthen the monitoring and analysis of the operation of the logistics industry, study and judge the situation in time, deploy and deal with it as soon as possible, make every effort to ensure the orderly operation of logistics, and provide a solid guarantee for economic and social development and the production and life of the people.
The Ministry of industry and information technology held a special meeting. The meeting pointed out that we should take multiple measures to ensure the stable production of key enterprises and the smooth operation of key industrial chains. We should mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties and work together to implement the policy of ensuring smooth freight logistics. We will continue to ensure the production and supply of medical materials.
The people’s Bank of China held a meeting to convey the spirit of the special meeting of the State Council, study and deploy overall epidemic prevention and control and economic development, and increase financial support for smooth logistics and stable industrial chain supply chain. The people’s Bank of China will use a variety of monetary policy tools such as refinancing and rediscount to support and guide financial institutions to increase financial support, open up a “green channel” for transportation logistics enterprises and freight drivers, reasonably arrange loan extension and renewal, increase the credit supply of civil aviation transportation, establish a credit and bond financing docking mechanism, give full play to the role of accounts receivable service platform, and support the stable circulation of industrial chain and supply chain.
