GM keeps up Shanghai output with workers sleeping on factory floor, report says

SHANGHAI -- General Motors' joint venture in Shanghai has maintained production amid the city's lockdown by asking workers to sleep on factory floors and getting passes for trucks to continue deliveries, two people familiar with the matter said.

Such measures are a "closed-loop" management process, which China's financial hub has asked companies to adopt to stay open during a two-stage lockdown to battle its COVID-19 outbreak.

Workers sleep, live and work in isolation from the rest of the world to prevent virus transmission. A similar system was used at the Winter Olympics in Beijing to seal event personnel off from the public.

GM builds Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac vehicles in a joint venture with Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC in an area east of Shanghai's Huangpu river that has been locked down from Monday to Friday.

GM said on Monday that its Shanghai JV was producing normally. The automaker declined to comment on the arrangements at its factory.

A spokesperson said the company and its joint ventures had developed and were executing contingency plans with their suppliers to mitigate uncertainty related to COVID-19.

GM's ability to keep its Shanghai production lines running contrasts with that of Tesla, which has suspended production for the four-day period. It was unable to secure sufficient provisions for its workers to achieve closed-loop management, one source said.

Volkswagen Group has said its Shanghai operations have not yet been affected by the city's lockdown and that production was still continuing. The automaker’s Anting plant is in the west of the city where the lockdown is scheduled to start on April 1.

Apple suppliers Foxconn and Shenzhen Deren Electronic managed to keep production going in southern China this month with closed-loop management after manufacturing hubs including Shenzhen and Dongguan were hit by similar lockdown measures.