(Yicai Global) May 11 -- Tesla’s factory in Shanghai has reportedly exported its first entire shipload of vehicles since resuming production 20 days ago amid a resurgence of Covid-19 in the city.

A ship loaded with 4,767 Tesla cars left Shanghai today bound for Slovenia, according to Shanghai Securities News. The factory had previously shipped a handful of vehicles to the Asia-Pacific region, it added.

The gigafactory in the Lingang New Area of Shanghai’s free trade zone was still at the stage of capacity rebuilding, a person familiar with the matter told Yicai Global a few days ago, adding that production may recover to the level seen before the recent Covid-19 outbreak by the middle of this month.

The US car giant halted output at the plant from the end of March to April 19 because of the impact of Covid-19 restrictions in Shanghai. While capacity did not fully recover, it turned out more than 10,000 vehicles last month, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

Hit by the resurgence of Covid-19, Tesla sold only 1,512 vehicles in China last month, less than a 10th of the same period last year. But its Shanghai plant still delivered 183,686 vehicles in the first four months of 2022, up more than 70 percent from a year earlier.

Tesla denied a report by Reuters yesterday that said work at the Shanghai plant had stopped most production again following a confirmed Covid-19 case at supplier Aptiv’s wire harness factory in the city’s Jiading district.

Since opening in 2019, the Shanghai plant has become Tesla’s largest production base. Last year, it delivered more than 480,000 vehicles, accounting for 52 percent of the company’s worldwide total, including 160,000 exported overseas.

Editor: Peter Thomas