SOURCE / ECONOMY
Shanghai’s integrated circuit sector returning to full capacity as resumption accelerates
Published: May 17, 2022 02:58 PM Updated: May 17, 2022 02:42 PM
Electric cars produced by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory are seen at a port in Shanghai on May 15, 2022. It is the second batch from Tesla's Shanghai factory to head overseas within one week. The factory resumed production on April 19. Photo: VCG
Electric cars produced by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory are seen at a port in Shanghai on May 15, 2022. It is the second batch from Tesla's Shanghai factory to head overseas within one week. The factory resumed production on April 19. Photo: VCG

After Shanghai announced the resumption of businesses and services in phases from Monday, local authorities said on Tuesday that multiple key construction projects and industries have resumed operations led by the integrated circuit sector. 

Wu Xiaohua, an official from the Lingang Special Area, said that local integrated circuits enterprises had reached full capacity, including Zing Semi and GTA Semiconductor. And the advanced equipment manufacturing sector had recovered to 50 percent of its normal capacity.

"As of Monday, 301 enterprises above the designated size in the area had resumed operations, and the employees' work resumption rate reached 69 percent with 51,000 on-duty workers," said Wu. 

Capacity utilization of the new energy vehicle manufacturing industry reached around 46 percent, as SAIC Motor Corp and Tesla realized 50 percent and 45 percent of their production capacity, respectively, according to the official. The capacity utilization rate of enterprises across the auto manufacturing industry chain had recovered to 50 percent.
 
"Local authorities, together with vehicle assembly enterprises such as Tesla, worked to clear congestion across over 100 vehicle component suppliers in the relatively long industrial chain," Wu added. 

The Lingang Special Area has offered financial support for small and middle-sized tech firms, as well as catering enterprises. These support programs covered nearly 5,000 companies and waived nearly 210 million yuan ($31.23 million) of rent so far this month. 

Authorities said that 16 out of 24 key construction projects in Shanghai had resumed operation as of Tuesday, including the capacity expansion project of display producer Everdisplay Optronic Co (EDO), a large database project belonging to tech giant Tencent, and a research building for R&D firm Zhangjiang Laboratory. The remaining eight programs were preparing to resume.

EDO confirmed that the project had resumed and its plants in Shanghai had been up and running since the company appeared on the first batch of "whitelist" of enterprises allowed to resume operations issued by Shanghai authorities.

The Shanghai official reaffirmed that the "whitelist" will be updated according to epidemic control requirements and demand from specific enterprises. 

The resumption of Tencent's database construction was approved by local authorities on May 3. Aside from 457 staff working under closed-loop management, over 60 more workers had been granted resumption license codes, Tencent said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

A staffer at Zhangjiang Laboratory told the Global Times on Tuesday that the laboratory had not returned to full capacity as the employees were returning to their positions in phases.