Shanghai's key SOEs stay busy even amid lockdown

While many factories in COVID-hit Shanghai remain closed or are preparing to resume production, Shanghai branches of China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises have taken multiple measures to safeguard operations of the industrial chain in the Yangtze River Delta region.

These efforts include organizing large-scale closed-loop management to continue production at various plants, providing timely supplies of power, staple foods and social services, as well as creating new logistics channels for export-oriented companies to ship their goods from ports in Shanghai, said SOE executives working in the city.

Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co, or ZPMC, one of the world's biggest port machinery manufacturers by market share, said that its Changxing manufacturing base in Shanghai's Chongming district has not halted production for a single day since March, and its production orders were met during the month. To date, its 13,000 engineers and workers have all been living in the company's factories in Changxing, without any reported infections.

Zhou Yafen, deputy general manager of ZPMC's Changxing branch, said timely shipments of port machinery and equipment guarantee operations of container terminals around the world and provide necessary support for large-scale international and domestic water transportation logistics.

"These moves also ensure that global terminal operators do not disrupt their production and operating plans, which to a certain extent will help downstream customers," Zhou said.

ZPMC, also a subsidiary of Beijing-based China Communications Construction Co Ltd, said that its seven canteens in Changxing base have sufficient vegetable and food supplies. Currently, their stocks of rice, flour, cooking oil and frozen vegetables can be used for three weeks, while fresh vegetable stocks can be consumed for more than three days.

Li Haiyun, chairman of Shanghai Energy Technology Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Beijing-headquartered State Power Investment Corp, said that in accordance with local rules for epidemic prevention and control, the company's smart energy power station project, located in Chongming district, has been running smoothly so far this month.

To keep supply chains running smoothly in the Yangtze River Delta region, China COSCO Shipping Corp, the country's largest shipping group by fleet size and ports－including those in Taicang, Nanjing and Zhangjiagang－have been helping export-oriented companies in Jiangsu province ship containers to ports in Shanghai via waterways. This has ensured the smooth transportation of exports for domestic manufacturers.

Fifty-five ports have launched such transshipment services along the Yangtze River by the end of last week. Of these, ports in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhangjiagang and Xuzhou have provided daily services to send shipping containers via waterways to ports in Shanghai for export, according to Shanghai-based China COSCO Shipping.

Xin Guobin, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said that the current COVID-19 outbreak has had a negative impact on the industrial sector, hampering logistics and industrial production in some places.

"The temporary shutdown of a company may affect a large number of firms in related industrial and supply chains, especially in the Yangtze River Delta region, where many automobile equipment and electronics companies are located," he said during a conference held by the China Federation of Industrial Economics over the weekend.

To tackle bottlenecks, Xin said that a white list system for key industrial and supply chain enterprises has been established to give priority to these companies to guarantee coordination, especially in key areas including integrated circuits, automobiles, equipment manufacturing and biomedicine. Currently, more than 2,000 companies have been included in the white list.

"At the same time, more efforts will be made to increase supply and stabilize prices of important raw materials, and strengthen the production capacity of chips. The ministry will also support leading companies in the field to play an active role in boosting supply chains," he said.

The official added that the government will make every effort to ensure the supply of medical materials, strengthen production scheduling and guarantee key medical necessities, including nucleic acid tests and antigen detection reagents, so as to meet the needs of medical supplies in Shanghai and elsewhere.