Manufacturers vying to keep up with orders

In the face of labor shortages, human resource managers at Lenovo's Shenzhen plant have interviewed as many applicants as possible with the guarantee that the health of both interviewers and interviewees will be protected. On Feb 23 alone, the plant interviewed more than 600 candidates, twice the average.

Lenovo is just one example of China's move to deal with challenges posed by the deadly virus and maintain the stability of the global supply chain.

China is implementing targeted policies and taking solid action to ensure epidemic prevention while resuming production to meet global supply.

Take the hardest-hit Hubei province as an example. It is one of the most important vehicle manufacturing bases in the world. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has already communicated with the local government to give priority to local automotive companies to make them among the first to resume production.

"With favorable policies, carmakers and other auto sector players in Hubei province are revving up operations in an orderly manner," Xin said.

Dongfeng Motor Corp has already resumed work in Hubei. The company's truck factory in Shiyan is now able to produce 200 vehicles per day, while two of its vehicle plants in Wuhan have also resumed operations, he added.

Wuhan-based Dongfeng is the country's third-largest automobile group by sales, and has over 160,000 employees. It has partnerships with international companies like Honda, Nissan, PSA and Renault.

As one of the world's largest suppliers of household appliances, Xinbao Electrical Appliances Holdings Co Ltd, recently received a thanks letter from US company General Electric after it shipped out a batch of OEM products including coffee makers in February. GE praised its on-time delivery.

Located in Foshan, South China's Guangdong province, Xinbao occupies a 10 percent share in the global OEM product market. Its flagship product, coffee makers, could hit 40 percent in the global market.

Galanz Enterprises Co Ltd, another Foshan-based company and a major microwave producer, has promised to never delay or call off deliveries amid the epidemic.

"No matter how difficult it is, deliveries have to continue because we are responsible to all clients," said Liang Zhaoxian, chairman of Galanz.

To honor its promise, the company resumed production on Feb 10 after taking a series of unprecedented strict preventive measures including temperature checks at least twice a day and washing hands six times a day.

To further deal with the shortage of line workers, the company has mobilized more than 160 managerial staff to work on its production line, Liang added.

As the novel coronavirus outbreak begins to come under better control in China, confirmed cases of the virus overseas are rising, which is triggering alarm about the impact on the nation's efforts to restart its sprawling manufacturing industry.

Xin from the ministry said it will affect China's manufacturing industry to some extent, but the impact will be manageable.

"The industry chain is globalized and the novel coronavirus outbreak in the US and some European countries will affect China's manufacturing industry," Xin said.

If the overseas epidemic is contained soon, it will have a limited impact on Chinese industry, the senior official said, adding that even if it takes a long time for some countries to bring the novel coronavirus under control, the impact will be controllable.

"This is because China has the world's most complete industrial system and the world's largest domestic market. Industrial fundamentals in China also remain good," he said.