Carmakers look to resume China output after virus forced closures

Carmakers look to resume China output after virus forced closures. Toyota to resume China output at three plants next week. Toyota Motor Corp said it plans to resume output at three of its four main auto plants in China next week.

The resumption of production had initially been slated for Feb. 3 following the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, but was delayed because of the new coronavirus outbreak in China.

Operations at Toyota’s plant in Changchun, Jilin province, and another plant in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, will restart on Monday, while a factory in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin will resume operations on Tuesday, Toyota said.

It has yet to be fixed when Toyota’s Chengdu plant in Sichuan province will restart output, the Japanese automaker said.

Automakers including Daimler, Ford and Tesla are looking to resume production in China after being forced to shut factories following the outbreak of a new coronavirus.

BMW’s China venture with Brilliance said on Feb.5 the Chinese firm planned to restart production today (Feb.17). Daimler said on Feb. 3 it plans to resume passenger car production in Beijing on Feb. 10.

Fiat Chrysler said on Feb. 6 that disruption to parts supplies could threaten production at one of its European plants within two to four weeks.

General Motors said on Feb.10 it plans to restart production in China on Feb. 15 and the Honda said on Feb.7 it would restart its three plants in Wuhan, which it operates with Dongfeng Motor Group, on Feb.13. Honda said there were no supply chain issues that would impede production.

Meanwhile the US government is considering whether to stop General Electric Co from continuing to supply engines for a new Chinese passenger jet, according to people familiar with the matter, casting uncertainty over China’s efforts to enter the civil aviation market.

The potential restriction on the engine sales - possibly along with limits on other components for Chinese commercial aircraft such as flight control systems made by Honeywell International Inc - is the latest move in the battle between the world’s two largest economies over trade and technology. The issue is expected to come up at an interagency meeting about how strictly to limit exports of US technology to China on Thursday and at another meeting with members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet set for Feb. 28, sources said.

The White House and the US Commerce Department, which issues licenses for such exports, declined to comment, as did a GE spokeswoman. The departments of Defense, State, Energy and Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.

For years, the United States has supported American companies’ business with China’s budding civil aviation industry.

The government has provided licenses that allow those companies to sell engines, flight control systems and other components for China’s first large commercial aircraft, the COMAC C919. The narrow-body jet has already engaged in test flights and is expected to go into service next year. COMAC is an acronym for Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd.

But the Trump administration is weighing whether to deny GE’s latest license request to provide the CFM LEAP-1C engine for the C919, people familiar with the matter said, though GE has received licenses for the LEAP engines since 2014 and was last granted one in March 2019.

The CFM LEAP engine is a joint venture between GE and France’s Safran Aircraft Engines. The proposal to halt the deliveries of the engines was also reported on Saturday by the Wall Street Journal.

Safran did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and French government officials could not be reached for comment.

Aside from aircraft engines, flight control systems are up for discussion at the February meetings. Honeywell International has received licenses to export flight control systems to COMAC for the C919 for about a decade, and one was approved in early 2020, according to a person familiar with the matter.

But future permission for such sales for COMAC’s passenger aircrafts may be up for debate. Honeywell also has been seeking a license for flight control technology to participate in the development of the C929, China’s planned wide-body jet venture with Russia, the person said.

The flight control system operates moving mechanical parts, such as the wing flaps, from the cockpit. A spokeswoman for Honeywell declined to comment.

Agencies