AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/20 Report--

Affected by the continued spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic, in addition to the car companies in Hubei, which are heavily affected by the epidemic, many car companies have already carried out plans to resume work on February 10, including some of Volkswagen's factories in China, but in order to further prevent the spread of novel coronavirus, Volkswagen decided again a few days ago to postpone the resumption of production plans for SAIC-Volkswagen and Skoda plants in China.

Volkswagen said on Monday that it had delayed the start of some of its operations in China again because of continuing concerns about COVID-19 's epidemic. SAIC Volkswagen, a joint venture with Shanghai Automobile Group Co., Ltd., is expected to resume production on Feb. 24, meaning the resumption plan will be delayed for another week.

Volkswagen said: "We are trying to restore normal production, but due to the national supply chain and logistics have not been fully restored, and production staff travel options are limited, delays are inevitable."

However, FAW-Volkswagen, a joint venture with China first Automobile Group, has resumed production at some of its plants, all of which are expected to resume work in the next few days. After the resumption of production, preventive measures will be taken, such as regular disinfection of the work area, distribution of masks to employees, and temperature check at the entrance to the work facility.

Volkswagen Group said earlier that six of the 14 assembly plants it operates with local partners in China have resumed production, including five factories operated by a joint venture between Volkswagen and FAW Group. One plant operated in cooperation with SAIC, but there are still eight other factories that have failed to achieve production, and all production is expected to resume on February 17. Now the company has once again postponed SAIC-Volkswagen's production plan to 24, equivalent to the whole of February, SAIC-Volkswagen difficult to resume production normally.

Although Honda and PSA's joint venture plant in China has repeatedly delayed their resumption plans, since both are based in Wuhan, Hubei, the hardest-hit area of the epidemic, the delay is restricted by the local government of Hubei Province. Among them, Honda said on the 14th that according to the Hubei provincial government's plan, the resumption of production at Honda's plant in Wuhan was postponed by a week, planned to resume operations on the 21st, and began production on February 24. DPCA, a PSA joint venture in China, announced that the company's formal resumption of work has been postponed to the 21st or later, subject to changes in the epidemic situation and relevant government requirements.

Today, Hubei Province issued another notice on the epidemic situation of novel coronavirus's infection with pneumonia. according to the relevant notice, all kinds of enterprises in Hubei Province should return to work no earlier than 24:00 on March 10. It means that car companies in Hubei, such as Dongfeng Honda and Shenlong Motor, will stop work for a month in February and will not be able to resume work until March, which will have a severe impact on production and sales.

Data show that SAIC Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. is a joint venture between SAIC Group and Volkswagen Group. The company signed a contract to lay the foundation in October 1984, and is headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. six major production bases and eight factories have been set up in Nanjing, Yizheng, Urumqi, Ningbo and Changsha. SAIC Volkswagen produces and sells products of Volkswagen and Skoda brands, covering A0, A, B, C, SUV, MPV and other market segments. FAW-Volkswagen has three major brands, Volkswagen, Audi and Jetta, and has set up six production bases in Changchun, Foshan, Chengdu, Qingdao and Tianjin respectively.

Although SAIC-Volkswagen plants were not set up in Hubei, they chose to postpone it again because they were still worried that the epidemic would bring greater safety risks.

In addition, due to the extended Spring Festival holiday and the continuing impact of the pneumonia epidemic, sales of domestic passenger cars fell by 20.4% in January compared with the same period last year, and sales of most car companies declined. Among them, the decline of SAIC-Volkswagen is also far higher than the industry average, falling by more than 40%. As the main sales force and profit cow of SAIC Group, its market performance has undoubtedly lagged behind.

According to the latest production and sales report released by SAIC, SAIC-Volkswagen produced 143700 vehicles in January, down 11.3% from a year earlier. January sales were 113000, down 40.5% from a year earlier, and a 52% drop from the previous month.

Compared with SAIC-Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen's performance is better or not, due to the addition of another volume brand-Jetta at the end of last year, sales expanded again during the period. According to data, FAW-Volkswagen sold 187000 vehicles in January, down 2% from a year earlier, and its market share reached 10.9%, an all-time high.

Because of the outbreak of the epidemic, retail in the national real economy almost came to a standstill in February. According to the statistics of more than 300 vehicle and parts enterprises, the impact of this epidemic on China's economy will be greater than that of SARS in 2003. and make the auto industry, which was in the period of adjustment, even worse.

The federation predicts that retail car sales will fall by more than 30% in February, while dealers generally believe that sales fell by more than 50% in February compared with the same period a year earlier, due to delays in most provinces.

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