AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/22 Report--

China's car market has been greatly affected by the spread of novel coronavirus in January and February, and the Chinese government has planned to launch rescue measures to stimulate the domestic car market. Due to the wide range of the epidemic, the Japanese auto market has also become one of the areas most affected by the epidemic. Following the Chinese market, the Japanese government also began to discuss rescue measures.

On February 20th, the Ministry of economy, Trade and Industry of Japan announced that it would jointly establish a joint committee on needle coronavirus pneumonia with the Japan Automobile Industry Association and the Japan Automobile parts Industry Commission to deal with novel coronavirus's impact on Japan's automobile industry.

According to a statement issued by Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry, the joint committee will monitor the development of the epidemic, coordinate communication, and cooperate fully with the government. If the impact of the epidemic on Japan's automobile industry worsens further, the committee will jointly formulate measures and provide necessary financing and policy support to ensure the smooth supply of auto manufacturers' parts.

The statement also mentioned that the greatest impact of the epidemic on many car companies in Japan is mainly in the supply chain, so it will also affect the terminal sales of the Japanese car market in the long run.

According to a person in the Japanese automobile industry, the influence of novel coronavirus in Japan has not been alleviated at present, and the impact will continue in the future.

According to previous media reports, the shortage of spare parts caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus has led to the suspension of two production lines at Nissan's Kyushu plant on February 14 and even faces a total shutdown from February 23. In addition, foreign media reported that if Nissan parts manufacturers still further delay production, then the company may further suspend production at factories in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia and India.

In addition, Suzuki, which withdrew from the Chinese market as early as 2018, is not sold in China, but it still needs to supply the market by purchasing some parts and components in China, and many parts factories in the Chinese market have stopped production due to the epidemic, so Suzuki is also looking for contract manufacturing solutions outside China. In addition, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Toyota have also stopped some of their operations in China.

At present, Hubei, including the Wuhan municipal government, has once again issued a notice demanding that work be banned from work due to the coronavirus before March 11. Statistics show that Chinese parts account for more than 30% of Japanese car companies, and Japan imported about 3 billion US dollars of auto parts from China in 2019, about 10 times that of the SARS outbreak in 2003. Therefore, the impact of coronavirus on Japan's automobile industry will continue.

In fact, before novel coronavirus, the Japanese auto market had fallen by more than double digits for many months in a row, affected by natural disasters such as tax reform and typhoons, as well as boycotts in Japan and South Korea, and so on. As a result, new car sales in Japan in January this year fell to the lowest level in nearly nine years, only higher than sales 10 years ago. Now the spread of China's novel coronavirus will undoubtedly further expand the impact on the Nissan car market and the Japanese market economy. As of the 20th, there were a total of 728 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Japan (of which 634 were confirmed on board the "Diamond Princess" cruise ship), making it the country with the largest number of infections except China.

The production of auto parts in China has affected more and more automakers, and since novel coronavirus's outbreak in China, the news that auto companies around the world have stopped production due to a shortage of parts has never stopped. For example, Hyundai and Renault, which have been suspended in South Korea, and Fiat in Europe have suspended 500L production. And Jaguar Land Rover boxed parts of China to the UK to maintain production.

It can be speculated that the epidemic will have a huge impact on the global automobile industry, and may even accelerate a new round of reshuffle in the industry.

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