(Yicai Global) April 18 -- Dongfeng Nissan has halted production at many plants in China because of the impact of the latest Covid-19 outbreak on its supply chain, an insider at the joint venture of Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor Group and Japan’s Nissan Motor told Yicai Global.

Some of Dongfeng Nissan’s assembly lines have been stopped since April 13 but are expected to restart on April 20, according to a production schedule Yicai Global saw yesterday.

Automakers including FAW Group, Tesla, MBW Brilliance, Great Wall Motors’ Tank brand, Guangzhou Automobile Group, and Nio have announced manufacturing stops due to the Covid-19 wave that has struck China since last month. Though the Hefei plant of Jianghuai Automobile Group-Nio have begun to resume output five days after announcing a temporary halt.

“Logistics around Shanghai can’t operate as usual because of the epidemic in the city, greatly affecting our production schedule,” said the source at Dongfeng Nissan.

The Wuhan-based joint venture, which has factories in Xiangyang, Zhengzhou, Dalian, and Guangzhou, has 83 suppliers in Shanghai most of which are electronic product makers that produce core parts.

The Shanghai government issued a plan for resuming production in the city on April 16. It will help companies in Dongfeng Nissan’s supply chain to return to normal as soon as possible and boost confidence, the insider added.

In the first quarter of this year, Dongfeng Nissan’s vehicle sales slipped 16.2 percent from a year earlier to 242,300 because of supply shortages of core parts such as chips, according to its own data. Last year’s sales fell 6.4 percent to over 1.1 million.

The Covid-19 outbreaks in the major cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou and the provinces of Jiangsu and Jilin have also affected the production, logistics, and sales of some of Guangzhou Automobile Group’s suppliers, an employee told Yicai Global yesterday. Some of GAC’s sales outlets also have been shuttered due to coronavirus restrictions.

GAC and its units are sparing no efforts in tackling challenges from the epidemic to reduce the impact as much as possible, the person said. They have been keeping in close contact with suppliers and logistics firms to adjust output and evaluate the outbreak’s actual impact. Sales outlets will gradually resume operations as restrictions ease, the source said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione