(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Sony has resumed partial operations in Shanghai with support from the municipal government after being shut for one and a half months amid an extended lockdown as the city battles an outbreak of Covid-19, the Japanese electronics giant’s China division told Yicai Global.

Unit Shanghai Suoguang Visual Products in the city’s Pudong district, which makes televisions, cameras and projectors, reopened on May 8 after being closed from March 28. Capacity will gradually be increased depending on the actual situation, it said.

Sixty-three percent of Japanese firms with businesses in Shanghai were forced to halt production during the lockdown and 30 percent were operating at a capacity of less than 30 percent, according to a survey by the Japanese Commerce and Industry Club last week that polled 125 companies. Restoring logistics and ensuring that employees return to work are top priorities, the enterprises said.

Sony’s China revenue nudged up 1 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31 from the year before to JPY771 billion (USD5. 9 billion), according to its latest financial report released yesterday. Total revenue jumped 10.3 percent year on year to JPY9.9 trillion (USD76.2 billion), but net profit plunged 14.3 percent to JPY882.2 billion (USD6.8 billion).

Editor: Kim Taylor