Work resumes at major firm, with 11,000 laptops set for export

WITH about 2,000 employees back at work and the first batch of 11,000 laptops on its way to being exported to the United States, Guanta Shanghai Manufacture City in Songjiang District has partly resumed work in an orderly manner while paying close attention to pandemic control and prevention.

On April 18, the first batch of overseas orders produced at Guanta Shanghai Manufacture City entered their carriage. Workers were busy loading laptops on trucks that would be transported to an airport later and to the US market in four days.

“This is the first batch of goods produced after we resumed work. A total of 11,000 laptops will be exported to the US through air cargo,” said Li Guosui, chief of Guanta Shanghai Manufacture City.

“The timely delivery is a result of strong government supportive policies and high-quality services from Songjiang Customs and Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone officials. We have some of our employees back at their jobs, enough resource supplies and will deliver goods on time.”

Part of the manufacture city, its F1 and F3 factories, resumed work on the morning of April 16.

“We applied for work resumption permission on April 15. Then, through locked-down management, the F1 factory with about 500 workers and the F3 factory with about 1,500 workers resumed operation,” Li revealed.

“Workers are required to wear face masks and shields during work. They do the antigen tests daily, and create as much personal space as possible when dining in the canteen or sleeping inside the factories. We provide them with daily necessities and they avoid contact with persons or goods from outside. Any goods into the factories must first be disinfected.”

“Smart technologies have paved the way for work resumption,” said Li. “Since 2019, manual labor has been greatly replaced by robots. Now one assembling line only requires a dozen workers.”

The Shanghai Economic Commission issued a work resumption guidance on April 16, advising companies to resume work in an orderly manner in locked-down management under the prerequisite of pandemic prevention and control measures, to ensure stable operation of the city’s industrial and supply chains. Shanghai has been under lockdown since the end of March to contain the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is estimated that another batch of about 59,000 laptops will be delivered from storage soon, according to Li.