The novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic has spread in more than 200 countries and regions around the world. People’s travel restrictions, consumption demand and production stagnation have been facing the global industry.
As one of the important representatives of manufacturing industry, the feeling of automobile industry is particularly deep. The global auto industry is experiencing the largest crisis in history, including wage cuts, layoffs and production cuts.
More than 100 factories have been withdrawn to stop production, and the global automobile industry is in “reverse gear”
The Geneva Motor Show is one of the top five auto shows in the world. When the construction work was nearly finished, the organizers announced the cancellation of the event. From Geneva to New York and then to Detroit, large auto shows have been “stranded”.
With the rapid increase in the number of cases in Europe and the United States, the industrial development gave way to the anti epidemic situation, and the wave of automobile factory production stoppage started in Italy
On March 14, Ferrari announced that it would stop production.
On March 17, Volkswagen Group announced that its factories in Spain, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy would stop production that week.
On March 19, Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler, the three major American automobile manufacturers, announced that all North American factories would be shut down.
According to statistics, by the beginning of April, there were more than 150 vehicle factories and more than 3000 spare parts enterprises in the world.
Li Shufu, chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd., also said: automobile enterprises are affected by the epidemic, which is unprecedented in history. Now Geely’s factories around the world are basically suspended.
Not only that, eight Japanese auto companies have announced the suspension of domestic automobile production in Japan, and Toyota has also stopped production in factories in South Africa, Egypt and other places.
Toyoda, President and chief executive of Toyota, said that Japan is really in a crisis situation. If the number of infected people increases further and medical treatment collapses, Japanese car companies may not be able to recover.
Global production by eight Japanese automakers is now expected to decline by 50% from the same period in 2019. During the travel period, in addition to the reduction of car sales, the market demand has been greatly depressed.
The data shows that:
German car sales fell 38% in March, making it the best performing country in the major European and American markets.
Italy’s decline was even 85%.
In the first quarter of this year, China’s car sales were 3.672 million, down 42.4% year-on-year.
Ferdinand dudenhofer, known as the “godfather of German automobiles”, predicts that it will take 10 years for the global auto market to return to the level of 2019.
In order to save themselves, cutting costs is the first choice for many car companies
GM announced a temporary 20% pay cut for 69000 employees worldwide and a 20% cut in total compensation for board members.
Tesla said that all employees working at home or in important functional positions will be temporarily reduced by 10% to 30% according to the wage standard.
Mercedes Benz has adopted a top-down pay cut strategy, in which the company’s executives’ salaries will be reduced by 20% by the end of the year, while other managers’ salaries will be reduced by 10%.
At the same time, cross-border gives new inspiration to automobile enterprises:
Tesla, BYD, GAC, Ford and other automobile companies have become suppliers of ventilator, mask, protective mask and other medical materials.
Ford’s safety distance watch, which uses Bluetooth technology, is also being tested. Once the distance from other people about 1.8 meters, the watch will automatically alert.
Governments have also begun to rescue:
With the US $2 trillion economic stimulus plan, there will be a large amount of money to help major U.S. automobile manufacturers, parts suppliers and auto dealers to maintain sufficient liquidity.
The French government is willing to provide about 300 billion euro loans to ensure the normal operation of Renault and Citroen.
The German government will also support about 150 billion euros in order to avoid foreign acquisitions of domestic companies due to the collapse of German car market shares. At the same time, the German government is also ready to buy some or all of its shares if necessary.
With the help of the automobile enterprises and the government, some enterprises began to work hard.
Press the “fast forward” button to resume work and production in China’s auto industry
As an important part of the global automobile industry chain, the resumption of work and production in China’s automobile market started as early as the end of February. At present, the resumption rate of major domestic automobile production bases has exceeded 99%. The gradual recovery of China’s market is also injecting positive force into the recovery of global automobile market.
Changan Automobile production line, the current resumption rate has reached 95%. In order to ensure vehicle production in the second quarter, since February, enterprises have begun to increase the purchase volume of imported auto parts, while tracking the latest production situation of overseas suppliers.
Yuan Mingxue, executive vice president of Changan Automobile, said: we have 208 suppliers and 2173 parts. At present, we have 23 overseas countries and regions. Parts, especially core parts, may have to be prepared in the future. On the one hand, they are imported from overseas, on the other hand, they are supported by key enterprises and key parts suppliers in China.
Manufacturing a complete vehicle involves hundreds of suppliers and tens of thousands of parts. In the critical period of fighting against the epidemic, it is really not an easy thing to get one car off the production line.
As of April 23, the rate of returning to work in the main production bases of 23 automobile enterprise groups in China has reached 99.5%, and the rate of employees returning to work is 88.2%. In order to reduce the impact of the epidemic on the automobile market, the state is also taking actions to:
On March 31, the State Council issued a two-year extension of subsidies and exemption from purchase tax for new energy vehicles, supported the elimination of diesel trucks under national III emission standards in key areas such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and reduced the value-added tax on used cars sold by second-hand car dealers