File photo:Xinhua

Car companies in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan Province, gradually resumed production on Friday after electricity supply and internet connections were restored following heavy rainfall and flooding in the city on Tuesday. A full recovery can be expected as logistical hurdles ease in the third quarter.

The heaviest rainfall in 60 years in Zhengzhou drew wide attention from the media and industry groups after a production halt in almost all plants in the city, which is home to several leading carmakers and a hundred-billion-yuan auto industrial cluster.

Several local car companies said that they have just resumed production when reached by the Global Times on Friday. Members of staff at Yutong Group Co, a large passenger car maker, resumed work on Friday after a production halt for two days, an employee surnamed Chen told the Global Times.

During the heaviest rainfall, there was some water coming into the company's plant, but it has been cleared by now, Chen said.

After the resumption of production, the company is providing free after-sales rescue services for passenger transport companies in the city. About 90 percent of Zhengzhou's public transportation had been restored as of Thursday night, Chen noted.

Another carmaker, Haima Motor, has also gradually resumed production after its electricity supply was cut off for two days.

"The impact was limited since our factory is based in the economic development district of the city where the land is higher," a customer service staffer at Haima Motor told the Global Times on Friday.

However, since the communication signal is not very stable at the moment, the production line has not fully recovered yet, the person said.

After the heavy rain, Haima Motor has received a lot of customer feedback, with many car rescue cases needing to be handled. Right now, their rescue vehicles are all being used and are still unable to cover all the requests.

Zhengzhou's car production capacity exceeded 2 million units in 2020, with an industrial scale close to 100 billion yuan.

While the car factories are now resuming production after the heavy rainfall caused disruption, industry insiders said that the logistical hurdles after the flood will still disrupt some of the business operations.

"Transportation logistics should give priority to the delivery of materials related to people's livelihoods and passenger transport, and the transportation of auto parts may not fully resume soon," Su Hui, a senior car industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday.

But Su said that since the flood is a short-term problem, there will not be a substantial impact on the car industry, and the plants will fully recover in the third quarter this year.