(Yicai Global) May 5 -- A number of Shanghai-based auto manufacturers and their suppliers worked over the five-day Labor Day holiday that ended yesterday to try to catch up with the loss in production after many were forced to suspended output since March due to the restrictions introduced to combat the latest wave of Covid-19, Yicai Global learned.

SAIC Volkswagen’s modular electric drive matrix factory and No. 3 Automobile Plant in Jiading district reopened on April 25. SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle, SAIC Volkswagen Automotive, SAIC General Motors, SAIC Anji Logistic Group and a number of the Chinese automobile giant SAIC’s other subsidiaries have started stress testing.

Shanghai is one of China’s major auto production centers, accounting for 10.7 percent of the country’s output of 26.6 million vehicles last year. It is home to many foreign and domestic auto parts firms that supply engines, batteries, chips as well as auto interiors and exteriors.

One such firm now has half its staff back, living and working at the factory in so-called closed-loop management, it told Yicai Global. It is paying the workers that stay at the plant an extra CNY300 (USD45) a day and double wages at the weekends.

Another auto parts maker in the city’s Fengxian district, which supplies SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC General Motors, started operations again on April 26 after being closed from March 27. Nearly 20 percent of its production line employees are back at work.

However, there are still a number of issues to be resolved, industry insiders said. The breakdown in logistics, due to the difficulties in making cross-regional deliveries, and the chip shortage are still posing problems. And there are many small firms that haven’t resumed production yet and carmakers need the parts that they make in order to produce cars, they added.

Editor: Kim Taylor