China Car Sales Drop Record 80% | Fears of GLOBAL PANDEMIC

China Car Sales Drop Record 80%

as Virus Empties Showrooms

A man passing through a parking area

China’s car sales had the biggest monthly plunge on record as the coronavirus kept shoppers away, intensifying the pressure on automakers already battling an unprecedented slump before the outbreak.

Sales fell 80% in February, according to preliminary numbers from the China Passenger Car Association released Wednesday. Average daily sales improved toward the end of the month compared with the first three weeks, PCA said.

The outbreak has paralyzed the industry just as it was looking to gradually halt a two-year decline, with manufacturers now left with little visibility into when sales might recover. Automakers have poured billions of dollars into the world’s largest car market over the past decades in a bet on its growth potential.

Everyone from market leader Volkswagen AG and electric-car maker Tesla Inc. to smaller local contenders have been pummeled as the spreading Covid-19 outbreak hit both demand and production. Wholesales from carmakers to dealerships probably plunged 86% in February, PCA said.

Millions of companies in China are in peril as consumers stay home and output at factories remains disrupted. Activity in the country’s manufacturing sector contracted sharply in February, with the official gauge plunging to the lowest level on record.

Even though the central government has stressed the car industry’s importance, it has yet to unveil fresh support measures. Local authorities, which are running against the clock to meet annual economic goals, have started to put in place their own incentive plans to stimulate demand.

The southern city of Foshan this month began providing rebates of as much as 3,000 yuan ($430 to car buyers. Guangzhou’s municipal government will give 10,000 yuan to new-energy vehicle buyers while a development zone in the city of Xiangtan, Hunan province, started offering 3,000 yuan to those purchasing locally made Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. vehicles.

With a slowing economy and widening fiscal gap, the central government has limited options to spur car sales. Its probable choices include reducing the 10% car-purchase tax, easing congestion-related purchase bans and offering incentives for rural residents to buy new-energy vehicles, according to Cui Dongshu, PCA secretary general.

TIANJIN

  6 days without New Cases  

Doctors looking at a lung CT image at a hospital in Yunmeng county, Xiaogan city

From February 27th, Tianjin didn’t report any case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for the last 6 days.  Only 5 patients still under treatment in Haihe Hospital.

According to the local health commission, 4 patients are stable, one is critical. A total of 124 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital. The commission said 2,363 close contacts had been traced and 273 of them still under medical observation.

A medical worker produces traditional Chinese medicine to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at a hospital in Wuhan

天津6天“0”！治愈率达94.1%

昨天，天津继续保持“0”新增，还有4名患者治愈出院。目前，天津已连续6天无新增确诊病例，128名患者治愈出院，治愈率达94.1%，在院治疗人数仅剩5人。天津，距离“清零”又近了一步。

截至目前，本市累计报告新冠肺炎确诊病例136例，其中男性73例，女性63例；危重型1例、普通型4例、治愈出院128例，死亡3例。疑似病例33例。累计排查密切接触者2363人，尚有273人正在接受医学观察。

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Growing Fears of
  GLOBAL PANDEMIC  

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Global cases are over 95,000: The number of people who have died from the coronavirus has risen to 3,285 as of Thursday, with 3,012 in mainland China. Outside of China, the most deaths have been reported in Italy, Iran and South Korea. A total of 95,481 cases of the virus have been confirmed worldwide, again with the vast majority in mainland China.

Italy is shutting schools: Outside of China, one of the worst outbreaks has been in Italy, where more than 3,000 cases of the virus have been confirmed, and 107 deaths. The country announced Wednesday that it was closing all schools and universities until March 15, and a "red zone" has been declared in the north of the country.

University students are seen at La Sapienza University Campus on Wednesday, March 4, in Rome, Italy

Fears of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC are growing: While the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the coronavirus a pandemic, as there is limited evidence of sustained transmission among people who have not recently traveled to China or had close contact with someone who recently traveled to China, other authorities have been less circumspect. Speaking Wednesday, German Health Minister Jens Spahn said "the coronavirus outbreak in China has become a global pandemic."

The Grand Princess cruise ship passes the Golden Gate Bridge on February 11, as it arrives from Hawaii in San Francisco

There may be another cruise ship outbreak: The Diamond Princess cruise liner quarantined in Japan dominated headlines for weeks, and now another ship has been halted - this time off the coast of California - after passengers and crew demonstrated symptoms. Governor Gavin Newsom, who earlier declared a state of emergency over an outbreak in the state, said the Grand Princess had been delayed to allow US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff time to inspect it.

Chinese Volvo Owner Geely Plans to Launch Satellites for Autonomous Cars

High Precision GPS

Chinese automaker Geely said Tuesday that it plans to launch two commercial low-Earth-orbit satellites by the end of this year, a move that could give it an edge in the company’s push to develop autonomous vehicles.

The satellites are expected to provide high-precision positioning accurate to within a few centimeters, combined with low-latency communications services to vehicles with advanced self-driving capabilities, the company said.

A rendering of Geely’s production facility in Taizhou

The satellite prototype is designed by Zhejiang-based aerospace technology startup Shikong Daoyu, which is 70% owned by a Geely subsidiary.

Satellite Guided Navigation

Also on Tuesday, Geely said in a statement on its public WeChat account that it has started building a satellite manufacturing and testing center in Taizhou, a city in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang.

造卫星？吉利要“上天”了

3月3日，吉利卫星项目在浙江台州正式开工，这是国内首个脉动式模块化卫星生产基地，也就是批量化流水线式生产卫星。吉利为此将投资22.7亿元，并计划到2025年，实现年产卫星500颗。

这些卫星将组建全球首个低轨道导航增强卫星系统，布网成功后，将提供厘米级别的导航精度。而高精度的导航，是未来无人驾驶、智慧出行、大数据、物联网的基础性工程。这也是吉利试图从传统汽车制造商向创新型科技公司转型的尝试。

吉利同时宣布，吉利旗下的航天科技公司时空道宇自主设计的两颗卫星，目前已经通过各项鉴定与测试，将于2020年内完成发射，这将是500颗卫星中最先进入太空的两颗。

HOTLINES FOR FOREIGNERSamid Coronavirus

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天津企业、家庭送餐及烘焙信息！

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