Chinese automakers warned they may have to put the brakes on production if
Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai persist, with a top Huawei executive also sounding
the alarm Friday about snarled supply chains.
اضافة اعلان
The restrictions have kept
Shanghai's 25 million residents mostly at home
for weeks, forcing manufacturers to halt operations and making China's GDP
growth target of around 5.5 percent look increasingly difficult to
achieve.
Shipping giants also warned that Shanghai's lockdown was snarling up the
world's busiest container port.
Covid outbreaks across the country and the associated reductions in economic
activity have already hit the auto industry hard, with car sales dropping 10.5
percent in March.
"If supply chain companies in Shanghai and its surrounding areas cannot
find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all original equipment
manufacturers may have to stop production in May," XPeng chief He Xiaopeng
said Thursday on social media.
XPeng has been touted as a Chinese challenger to US electric car giant
Tesla, and its chief said that businesses were hoping for more support from the
authorities to navigate the Covid closures.
A top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei -- which has started to work
with domestic auto manufacturers in the intelligent vehicle sector -- echoed
the comments on Friday and warned the clock was ticking.
"If Shanghai continues being unable to resume work and production, from
May, all tech and industrial players involving the Shanghai supply chain
will completely shut down, especially the auto industry!" Richard Yu, head
of Huawei's consumer and auto segment, said on the social media platform
WeChat.
Huawei sold its first 3,000 electric vehicles with the company's HarmonyOS
operating system in March.
The group has been working with automakers to provide intelligent auto
components, but does not make cars on its own.
- Global brands
affected -
The Covid curbs have affected global brands as well, with Volkswagen saying
it has been "severely hit by Covid-19 outbreaks in Changchun and
Shanghai", where the German titan's Chinese joint ventures are located.
The firm is "temporarily unable to meet high customer demand,"
said Volkswagen Group China CEO Stephan Wollenstein Thursday.
China's zero-Covid policy has been increasingly strained as the country
battles its highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic.
Volkswagen said around 20 percent of its dealers were forced to temporarily
close in March alone as a result of lockdowns.
And Tesla's multi-billion-dollar "gigafactory" in Shanghai --
which the company calls its main export hub -- has also been reportedly shut.
Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio said last weekend that it had suspended
vehicle production, as business partners in virus-hit areas such as Jilin and
Shanghai halted operations.
Containers have been piling up at the port of Shanghai as the city faces
limited trucking capacity, and shipping giant Maersk said in a statement
Thursday it would stop taking new bookings for refrigerated containers and
hazardous cargo into the city.
It cited "yard congestion in Shanghai terminals" for the move.
Another shipping company, Ocean Network Express, said that plug slots for
keeping refrigerated containers cool were "highly stressed".
Read More Region & World
.jpg)
.jpg)
