(Yicai Global) March 14 -- The vehicles output of FAW Group is likely to decline by 48,000 units, as the Chinese leading carmaker has halted production at its plants in northeastern China’s Changchun, in Jilin province, due to the latest Covid-19 outbreak.

Yicai Global estimated that FAW will produce 48,000 fewer vehicles this month because it will shut down its factories in Changchun for four days until March 16 to respond to the local Covid-19 control measures.

Jilin reported 1,412 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on March 12, 831 of which were in Changchun.

The plants will resume operations on the estimated day if the coronavirus control situation allows them to, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of Changchun City, a government agency in charge of the city’s industrial production, said yesterday.

FAW owns FAW Toyota, FAW-Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen-Audi, FAW Hongqi, FAW Bestune, and FAW Jiefang. FAW and FAW Toyota haven’t responded to the news yet. FAW-Volkswagen-Audi and FAW-Volkswagen said they are not aware of the announcement.

Changchun, where FAW is headquartered, is China’s first automobile industry base, which is now worth nearly CNY1 trillion (USD157.4 billion). The city is home to five carmakers, including FAW-Volkswagen and FAW Toyota, which can produce about 3 million vehicles a year.

FAW Toyota’s Tianjin plant closed for several days due to the Covid-19 outbreak that hit the city early this year, causing its sales to slump in January. It made only 41,000 vehicles in the first month of the year, down 45.4 percent from a year earlier, and sold 51,700 units, down 37.7 percent in the same period, according to data from FAW.

The decline in FAW Toyota’s sales was a drag on FAW’s whole business performance, as its sales sank 25.9 percent to 311,500 vehicles in January from a year earlier.

Editor: Futura Costaglione