At present, the epidemic situation in COVID-19 has been basically controlled, and most of them are imported cases. In Wuhan City, Hubei Province, the hardest hit area of this epidemic in China, medical teams from all over the country were evacuated in batches in the past two days, which really relieved everyone a little.
Some time ago, we introduced the current situation of the domestic automobile market together. Today, we turn our attention to overseas markets. After all, the epidemic has begun to spread in Japan, South Korea, Europe and North America.
At present, there are more than 220,000 confirmed cases in COVID-19. Besides China, South Korea is the country with the worst epidemic in Asia. The most serious case in Europe is Italy, which is also the country with the fastest growth of cases. The Italian Prime Minister also announced today that he will continue to extend the measures of "blocking the country".
The three major auto giants in North America issued a statement
In addition to the serious epidemic in Europe, North America is also erupting, the most serious being the United States. On March 14, Trump declared a national state of emergency. Up to now, there have been more than 9,000 confirmed cases in the United States.
Previously, the cost of COVID-19 testing in the United States was about $2,500, but today Trump signed an emergency bill to provide free COVID-19 screening for everyone, including those without insurance in the United States. The United States, which has always taken COVID-19 seriously, finally couldn't help it.
Of course, affected by the epidemic, American car companies and car companies with factories in the United States have also made corresponding adjustments. The first is the three major American auto giants Ford, General Motors and FCA.
Earlier, the United Auto Workers (UAW) called on Detroit's three major automakers to suspend production for two weeks to protect their members from the COVID-19 epidemic.
UAW president Rory? Gamble said, "Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have been reluctant to stop production. They asked for 48 hours to make a plan to ensure the safety of factory workers. This window period will end on the afternoon of March 17 local time. "
However, at present, the three automakers have agreed to UAW's request and will close their factories in North America.
In a statement issued by Ford, it is pointed out that Ford will stop production in its factories in the United States, Canada and Mexico at the end of the night shift on Thursday until March 30, during which time the facilities will be thoroughly cleaned.
Subsequently, General Motors also issued a similar statement. Although the company said that the closure will last at least until March 30, its closure procedures will vary according to different factories, and GM will suspend its manufacturing business in North America in an orderly manner.
FCA's statement was released a few hours after Ford and GM made a statement, but it was essentially the same thing. Production in the North American factory will stop from March 18 to the end of March.
However, in these three statements, we have not seen any measures involving how to compensate idle workers during the shutdown.
In addition, according to Reuters, representatives of Ford and General Motors are holding talks with the Trump administration to discuss how to help produce medical equipment to cope with the global COVID-19 epidemic.
Of course, in addition to the three major automakers, Nissan North America also announced that the production of its American factory will stop from March 20 to April 6. Honda's factories in Canada, Mexico and the United States will also stop production for six days, from March 23rd to March 3rd1,during which the wages of the affected workers will be paid in full.
Tesla, another American company that has been in the forefront for a long time, promises that employees can take advantage of its 80-hour paid vacation, which is equivalent to two weeks of working time. They can also choose unpaid leave and promise not to be punished for it.
North America's influence has not yet fully emerged.
In fact, COVID-19's influence on the North American automobile market has not been fully revealed. Judging from the current downtime in the United States, most of them will end at the end of March, that is, less than half a month, which is much shorter than the downtime in China.
If the epidemic situation does not worsen further, two weeks will not have much impact on production. However, judging from the current situation, the reaction time of foreign countries to COVID-19 is only half a beat, and the public is not very nervous about COVID-19, so the performance of the North American market this year is likely to be damaged to a certain extent.
Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets (RBC? Capital? According to the data of Markets, the chain reaction of novel coronavirus epidemic to consumer demand may lead to a decrease of 65,438+06% in global automobile production in 2020, while American automobile sales are expected to decrease by 20%.
It is understood that the net profit of GM and FCA decreased by 17.4% and 19% respectively last year, while the situation of Ford Motor Company was even more severe. The net profit in 2065,438+09 was $47 million, far lower than the $3.7 billion in 2065,438+08, with a decrease of 98.7%.
Coupled with the suspension of production caused by this epidemic, it is undoubtedly another punch for American car companies. At the same time, this will further affect the further turmoil and pattern reshaping of the global auto market this year.
In addition, the fermentation of the COVID-19 epidemic caused the US stock market to fuse for the fourth time this month, and auto stocks also suffered heavy losses. On March 18, US Eastern Time, GM once fell more than 29%, Tesla fell nearly 18%, Ford fell nearly 17%, and FCA fell more than 15%. As of the close of March 18 local time in the United States, the shares of Tesla, GM, Ford and FCA fell by 16.03%, 17.32%, 10. 18% and 9.2% respectively.
Influence of foreign epidemic situation on domestic market
If you ask me how much the North American epidemic has affected the domestic auto market, it may not be obvious at present, but we can look at the impact of the entire overseas epidemic on the domestic auto market, which can be summarized as three points.
First of all, the delivery time and quota of imported models in China will be affected to some extent, especially those customized models. At this point, parallel imported cars will face the same problem. In addition, logistics is blocked, so it will be affected during this time.
The second point is about spare parts. As we all know, China's auto parts production can account for more than 50% of the world's total, and domestic auto parts factories are returning to work in an orderly manner. However, with the spread of foreign epidemics and the shutdown of factories, it remains to be seen whether there will be a backlog of domestic production capacity, but it may indeed be an influencing factor. At present, if the epidemic can be ended as soon as possible, this phenomenon should not happen, but it will affect for a long time.
The third point is automobile export, which is mainly influenced by independent brands. In February this year, domestic sales declined, but the export volume increased significantly. However, with the development of foreign epidemic, the export volume of independent brands will face great pressure. In addition, they also need to compete with local brands for the market after the outbreak, which can be said to have a certain impact on their own brands.
The epidemic has brought great challenges to the industry.
At present, the whole global automobile industry chain is being affected by the COVID-19 epidemic to varying degrees. If the epidemic cannot be controlled as soon as possible, it will mean that the revenue of many car companies will be greatly reduced this year.
So what we need to do now is to hope that countries can control the epidemic as soon as possible and minimize the losses of enterprises. For car companies around the world, we still have to wait for the recovery of the big environment. end
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.