GAC Group will not cut salary to weather coronavirus-caused crisis

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC Group cut its 2020 sales target as its production severely stalled in February due to the coronavirus outbreak. From now on, the group will strive to achieve a year-on-year growth of 3% in annual sales, versus 8% previously set for the year, according to Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group.

To survive the unexpected winter, some automakers attempt to alleviate their finance pressure by lowering employees' salaries. However, it will not be taken as part of approaches by GAC Group to weather the crunch, said Zeng.

The automaker wishes to control cost in other sides, such as trimming the management expenditure and using cheaper accommodation and vehicles for business trips.

Up until now, the group's headquarters and the R&D posts have resumed full operation. As of March 13, the production restart has taken place across GAC's nine vehicle manufacturing companies with roughly 60% capacity reactivated, according to the chairman. Besides, there have been 96% auto parts suppliers, 89% logistics service providers and 94% dealerships resuming business to-day.

Nonetheless, some production facilities are still idle because of the stoppage in Hubei, the province where GAC Group has around 180 auto parts suppliers.

Thus, to increase the production capacity as much as possible, workers has been required to work extra hours on Saturdays and Sundays in the near future, and will get overtime pay correspondingly.

GAC Group sold 19,347 new vehicles during the anti-coronavirus month, suffering a year-on-year plunge of 81.08%. With 195,618 units sold in total, the decrease in its year-to-date sales stood at 37.3% (photo source: GAC Group's WeChat account).