Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register SHANGHAI, March 29 (Reuters) – Shanghai lockdown on COVID-19 wreaked havoc on Tuesday as two major suppliers teamed up with Tesla (TSLA.O) to close factories to comply with control measures. of the spread of the coronavirus. The Shanghai General Motors Co (GM.N) consortium maintained production by asking workers to sleep on factory floors and pick up truck cards to continue deliveries, said two people familiar with the matter. A major car supplier, Aptiv PLC (APTV.N), told workers at one of its Shanghai facilities that it was supplying Tesla and the GM consortium in Shanghai to return home on Tuesday due to the need to impose controls on COVID, said people who were informed about the measure. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Thyssenkrupp (TKAG.DE) said it had closed an engine plant in Shanghai by April 6 to comply with local coronavirus regulations. The closure of Aptiv and Thyssenkrupp came on the second day of the lockdown in Shanghai, home to 26 million people and a major hub for the construction of vehicles and other goods. The city has introduced tough controls on human movement to try to control the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant. The lockdown, one of the biggest tests of China’s “zero COVID” strategy, has forced automakers and suppliers to either try to adapt to keep factories shut down or close and risk late shipments at a time. that the demand for vehicles is strong. German carmaker Bosch said on Tuesday that its two factories in Shanghai were operating with reduced staff. “We are doing everything we can to maintain supply chains as much as possible and to serve the demands of our customers,” the company said in a statement. For global automakers and suppliers, the latest coronavirus-related disruptions in China, the world’s largest market, are piling up over the problems created by the war in Ukraine. read more GM’s move to keep its Shanghai plant open is tantamount to a “closed loop” management process that China’s financial hub has asked companies to adopt to stay open during a two-stage lockdown for fighting the epidemic. In the bubble-like arrangement, workers sleep, live and work in isolation from the rest of the world to prevent the virus from spreading. A similar system was used at the Beijing Winter Olympics to seal event staff from the public. The plant, which GM operates as part of a joint venture with Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor Corp (600104.SS), produces Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles. The facility is located in areas east of Shanghai Huangpu River that have been closed from Monday to Friday. EMERGENCY PLANS GM, which said Monday that its Shanghai consortium produces normally, declined to comment on the plant’s arrangements. A spokesman said the company and its consortia had developed and carried out contingency plans with their suppliers to alleviate the uncertainty associated with COVID-19. SAIC had no immediate comment. SAIC-GM ‘s ability to operate its Shanghai production lines contrasts with that of Tesla Inc. (TSLA.O), which Reuters reported had suspended production for four days. It has not been able to provide sufficient forecasts for its employees to achieve closed loop management, a source said. read more Workers at the affected Aptiv site were called to stay home on Wednesday and wait for further notice, the four sources told Reuters. Two of the sources said that the affected association produces for the joint venture of Tesla and GM in Shanghai with SAIC. Aptiv’s Shanghai facility is located west of the city and was not affected by the city’s lockdown, which began in the eastern neighborhoods. Sources said workers at the affected facility had been informed they had to close due to COVID-19 problems. Aptiv declined to comment on the suspension. “I can confirm that we follow all government orders and do not affect customer production,” said an Aptiv spokesman. Tesla, GM and SAIC did not comment immediately. Suppliers TCL Corp (000100.SZ) and Apple, Foxconn (2317.TW) and Shenzhen Deren Electronic Co Ltd (002055.SZ) were able to resume production in southern China this month with closed-loop management following production hubs such as Shenzhen and Dongguan were hit by similar quarantine measures. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Zhang Yan and Norihiko Shirouzu. Additional references by Christoph Steitz and Ilona Wissenbach in Frankfurt, written by Brenda Goh. curated by Paul Simao, Jonathan Oatis and Sam Holmes Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
