[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Shanghai, China's largest economic city, which was closed due to the spread of COVID-19, is attempting to restart its economic engine ranging from manufacturing to retail stores.
On the 19th (local time), Bloomberg reported that Tesla's Shanghai factory began restarting its new car production line from that day. Accordingly, more than 8,000 employees who had been on leave for the past three weeks also started returning to work.
Retail stores have also opened. Over 60% of Carrefour stores in Shanghai resumed operations as of the 17th. Shanghai plans to increase the ratio of open stores to 90% by the 24th.
Manufacturing line factory workers returned to work using a closed-loop system where they work and reside on-site and undergo regular COVID-19 testing. Instead of staying in temporary accommodations within the factory, workers received additional allowances.
Quanta Computer, which manufactures Tesla accessories and Apple laptops, also partially resumed production using the same method. The number of confirmed cases in Shanghai was 18,089 on that day, falling below 20,000 for the first time since the 6th.
However, about two-thirds of Shanghai citizens, approximately 16 million people, are still prohibited from leaving their residences. This is expected to lead to labor shortages. According to a report by Caixin, only one-third of Carrefour employees have returned to work, and Carrefour is currently handling only online orders.
Companies are still facing difficulties due to raw material shortages and other logistics issues. Tesla recently stated that procurement is difficult because production by suppliers based in Jiangsu Province is still suspended.
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