Under the COVID-19 epidemic, stabilizing the economy and employment is as important as preventing and controlling the epidemic. For the automobile industry, it is not only an epidemic prevention war, but also an economic defense war. As the "ballast stone" of China's economy, the automobile manufacturing industry is highly related to the macroeconomic development of China. The resumption of work and production promoted by various localities is conducive to maintaining the ecological stability of the manufacturing industry and further enhancing the anti-invasion ability of China's economy against the epidemic.

Text/"Autobot" Sharla Cheung

China is approaching a turning point in fighting the epidemic, and the number of newly confirmed cases in COVID-19 has dropped for several days, marking a new stage of epidemic prevention and control.

Following the resumption of work in February 10, car companies ushered in a new round of "resumption of work tide", and the semi-stopped auto industry accelerated into the normal track.

On February 17, Guangzhou Automobile Group's vehicle companies including Guangqi Honda, GAC Toyota, GAC Passenger Car, GAC New Energy and GAC Fick resumed production one after another. Dongfeng Nissan, headquartered in Guangzhou, has also started the road of resuming production.

In the southwest of Chongqing, the welding, stamping, painting and assembly workshops of Changan Automobile Yubei Factory began to resume operation. On February 18, all products of Changan Automobile ushered in the resumption of production.

In the far northeast, as a black Audi A6L slowly rolled off the production line, FAW-Volkswagen Changchun Base officially resumed production since the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Geely Automobile Linhai Base, located in Toumengang Economic Development Zone, Zhejiang Province, has been prepared by many parties. February 19 ushered in the resumption of work and production ... In addition to the automobile industry in Hubei, the national automobile industry is returning to work in an orderly manner.

According to the latest statistics of China Automobile Industry Association, the current rate of returning to work in the automobile industry exceeds 75%. Under the COVID-19 epidemic, stabilizing the economy and employment is as important as preventing and controlling the epidemic. For the automobile industry, it is not only an epidemic prevention war, but also an economic defense war.

Importance of auto industry's resumption of work

Automobile industry is an important pillar industry of China's manufacturing industry, and its total output value accounts for 9% of GDP. As the "ballast stone" of China's economy, the automobile manufacturing industry is highly related to China's macroeconomic development, and it is a double benchmark of a country's manufacturing software strength and hardware strength.

As a highly integrated industry, automobile manufacturing involves steel, chemical industry, electric power, equipment manufacturing, electronic raw materials, product sales and other fields, and is closely related to upstream and downstream enterprises. The resumption of work and production will help stimulate the upstream demand for steel, rubber, chemicals and electronics. To maintain the stability of manufacturing ecology and supply chain, and avoid or reduce the longer-term negative impact of China's economy.

At the same time, as a labor-intensive and asset-intensive industry, the automobile industry has a large number of employees, which is related to economic upgrading, improvement of people's livelihood and social stability. In order to control inventory, car companies try to find suppliers as close as possible, forming an industrial cluster effect.

Take Guangdong as an example. In the first half of 20 19, the total revenue of Guangzhou Automobile Group and joint ventures/associates reached1686.85 billion yuan, with an average daily revenue of about 654.38 billion yuan.

Baidu's migration map shows that since February, Guangdong has been in the forefront of the provinces where the population has returned, and the resumption rate of Huadu Automobile City is as high as 96.35%, which is closely related to the resumption of work of Dongfeng Nissan and other car companies.

In the critical period when economic growth is in a downward trend and difficult transformation, the impact of the epidemic on the automobile industry in the short term cannot be ignored. Unlike the relatively rapid recovery of the tertiary industry such as catering and cultural tourism, if the manufacturing industry does not resume production as soon as possible, once the industrial chain and supply chain are interrupted, it is easy to form a transfer substitution.

According to the survey results of automobile production bases of China Automobile Association 183, as of February 16, there are still 5 1.9% automobile production bases that cannot be restored. "Even if it is a factory that has resumed work, it is not completely resumed. As for when to fully resume work, it will wait until February 24. "

On February 20th, the epidemic prevention and control headquarters in COVID-19, Hubei Province issued a notice, requiring all kinds of enterprises in the province to resume work no earlier than 24: 00 on March/KLOC-0. This means that Dongfeng Group, which occupies a decisive share of the automobile industry in Wuhan and even Hubei Province, will suffer heavy losses. According to the goal of Dongfeng Company's total profit of more than 40 billion yuan in 2020, every day of production suspension means a loss of hundreds of millions of yuan.

The epidemic will also seriously damage many auto parts enterprises in Wuhan 1 100. Volkmar, global CEO of Bosch Group? Denner warned that the COVID-19 outbreak may affect Bosch's global supply chain because it relies heavily on the China market. In Wuhan, Bosch has two affiliated companies.

Not to mention that at the moment when global cooperative production is getting closer and closer, the automobile industry chain has deeply participated in the national and even global division of labor. Due to the closure of parts suppliers in China, many overseas automobile factories, including Korean and Japanese, stopped production.

Subject to the supply chain, Beijing Benz publicly stated in a letter a few days ago that it would cost 400 million yuan to delay the resumption of work one day. Obviously, the resumption of production in the automobile industry will close the downstream industrial chain, and large supporting enterprises and the automobile consumer market can't afford to wait or delay.

Dance on a tightrope

Under the epidemic situation, every link of the automobile industry chain is under pressure, whether it is automobile enterprises, parts enterprises or dealers.

On the one hand, life safety, on the other hand, economic pressure. How does China's automobile industry meet the test of resuming production? This requires courage and responsibility as well as wisdom.

The limited free movement of people and things are two important factors that affect the return to work of car companies. This requires enterprises to strike a balance between ensuring personnel safety and restoring normal business order when returning to work.

Epidemic prevention and production "with both hands" is the overall idea of many car companies. Under the premise of strictly guarding against death, car companies are trying to take into account the steady growth of output.

As early as February 10, many enterprises began to prepare for the resumption of production nervously. From the protection measures for employees inside and outside the factory, to the efficient coordination of production, procurement, sales and other value chain links, to supporting channel partners and strengthening upstream and downstream cooperation, detailed plans have been launched. This has created conditions for vehicle enterprises to gradually resume production.

Supply chain is the biggest difficulty, and it is a difficult problem facing the whole industry at present. Because enterprises in different places are subject to local policies, the start-up time cannot be determined and unified, which has a great impact on the whole industrial chain. Relevant statistics show that as of February 17, 2007, more than half of the production bases in the parts industry have not resumed work.

"Autobots" learned that Dongfeng Nissan began to visit many suppliers such as Zhongshan and Guangzhou as early as February 15 before the resumption of production, to understand their preparations, existing difficulties and approval for resumption of work, and to ensure smooth supply chain.

Subject to the supply of spare parts, even after the production line is restarted, it will take some time for enterprises to achieve capacity climbing. Many car companies return to work ahead of schedule, implement flexible production according to the preparation of supply chain, and realize capacity climbing in stages. To this end, many car companies implement flexible production according to the preparation of supply chain and realize capacity climbing in stages.

In order to resume work smoothly, various enterprises have made a series of intensive and meticulous arrangements, and strengthened control in employee inspection, entrance inspection, health protection and logistics support. Many enterprises provide a safe working environment for employees who have returned to their posts: temporary isolation zones are set up in factories and office areas according to epidemic prevention requirements; Take "Nordic Queuing" and "College Entrance Examination Dining" to Prevent Virus Infection ...

Chen Hao, deputy general manager of Dongfeng Nissan, said: "What we have to do is to restore the normal production and operation order as soon as possible under the premise of ensuring the physical and mental health of employees, so that the production and operation of the whole value chain can be put into operation."

Although enterprises have taken measures such as rotation and infrared temperature measurement after returning to work, and local enterprises are also cautious about returning to work, news of cluster infections has been reported from time to time throughout the country since returning to work for a week. On February 19, 2009, a production enterprise with 400 to 500 employees broke out in Banan District, Chongqing, and was shut down. The road for the manufacturing industry to return to work in the epidemic is as difficult as walking a tightrope.

Go against the wind and watch the wind.

China is exploring a new model of orderly economic recovery. The manufacturing industry, including the automobile industry, is also actively helping itself and realizing transformation and upgrading from the inside with innovative models.

Under the sudden epidemic situation, China FAW has realized telecommuting based on the nail digital platform, which has provided all-round help for the smooth resumption of work under the protection of the epidemic situation, and this is only a part of the digital transformation of FAW Group. At present, FAW Group is fully implementing business restructuring and digitalization.

Returning to work is not simply turning on the switch of the production line, but the scientific allocation of resources and the continuous optimization of production capacity.

Taking Changan Automobile Yubei Factory as an example, through intelligent transformation and upgrading, the automation rate is over 90%. Robots play an active role in epidemic prevention and control and orderly resumption of production, avoiding the disadvantages of traditional industrial enterprises such as many processes, long assembly lines and many people gathering. Digital economy plays a huge dynamic role in dealing with the epidemic of force majeure.

Different from the whole vehicle, the return to work in the terminal market is not optimistic. According to china automobile dealers association's investigation, as of February 18 and 16, the employees' return to work rate was 23.6%, the sales efficiency was 6.2%, the after-sales efficiency was 6.7%, and the comprehensive return to work efficiency was only 9.82%.

Because the dealer funds only flow out during the epidemic, if the epidemic cannot be effectively controlled in a short period of time, a large number of dealers will face the problem of lack of funds.

Returning to work is only the first step, and the exported goods will eventually flow to consumers through terminal channels. Distributor is the terminal of product supply and the first line of close contact with consumers. In order to boost the terminal, various OEMs have taken multiple measures to alleviate the pressure on dealers, such as not setting February sales targets, supporting financial policies, subsidizing dealers or giving inventory discounts, and extending the warranty period.

In the face of the current epidemic situation in COVID-19, consumers' dependence on the Internet and online services will further deepen, which also urges the traditional sales model to further shift to online. Although cars belong to bulk physical consumer goods, it is difficult for small commodities and virtual products to achieve high turnover rate in the short term, but a new way out has emerged.

Only when the order of production and operation is stable and the society enters the normal consumption track can the terminal market sell cars normally and enterprises operate at a high speed. For the automobile industry, the resumption of production is a shot in the arm, which not only inspires morale, but also brings confidence to the partners in the whole value chain. The orderly resumption of work and production promoted by various localities will further enhance the ability of China's economy to resist the epidemic.

From this point of view, the government provides systematic and effective policy guidance from both the supply and demand sides to help the automobile industry to restore normal production order as soon as possible, and at the same time, it should continue to promote the transformation and structural optimization of the automobile industry in order to achieve better development.

As the first driving force of the industrial chain, car companies will gradually drive the normal operation of the industrial chain. Strive to minimize the impact of the epidemic, which is also the focus of most mainstream car companies in the first quarter. Fortunately, winter is coming to an end, can spring be far behind? (Text/"Autobot" Sharla Cheung, part of the picture source network) Copyright statement This article is an exclusive original manuscript of Autobot, and the copyright belongs to Autobot.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.