BEIJING (Reuters) – Automakers across the world deal with the possibility of extended supply chain disruptions as factories in China stutter back to life after closures due to the coronavirus break out.
SUBMIT IMAGE: A staff member using a face mask deals with a safety seat assembly line at Yanfeng Adient factory in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of an unique coronavirus, February 24,2020 REUTERS/Aly Song/File Picture
The automobile industry is specifically exposed as Wuhan – the epicenter of the outbreak – is known as among China’s ‘Detroits’, accounting for nearly 10%of automobiles made in the country and house to numerous parts suppliers.
Non-essential factories in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province stay on lockdown a minimum of until Wednesday. When they resume on March 11, or whenever authorities give the go-ahead, it is unclear if business will have the raw products or workers to return to typical operations.
Automakers are worried about their staff members’ health and the unequal and unforeseeable application of rules in various cities and areas that is making it hard for a market that is utilized to uniformity to plan ahead.
” In some cities, one worker gets infected, the whole factory where he works requirements to be shut down,” stated one official at Honda Motor Co, which has a production center and more than 100 suppliers in Wuhan and the surrounding location.
” In Wuhan, that has not been clarified,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to occur to your factory until you report an infection case to authorities. It’s difficult to deal with that kind of uncertainty when you’re running a mas