China’s public health crisis with the Coronavirus has created economic issues as well. Their exports have been put to a halt. This occurrence has hit multiple countries’ economies. Fiat Chrysler, an automobile production company, has reported they have stopped a production plant in Serbia due to the lack of parts they should be receiving but has come to a halt. German Automakers are the most affected. This includes BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen.

These companies heavily rely on the economic powerhouses of Asia as providers of parts. German automakers are struggling to survive this unexpected occurrence of events, posting 0% growth at the end of 2019.

For every week that these factories are closed it removes $26 billion from world trade, according to Ana Boata, the head of macroeconomic research at Euler Hermes. The virus has hit the global economy more than the SARS Outbreak had done in 2003.

People refer to Wuhan as the Detroit of China as it is the top place for production auto parts that car makers rely on. The automobile companies were originally planning to reopen the factories before the outbreak. Now they plan on making that happen in a week or 2. Hopefully in a disease-free zone.

Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford Motor, and Mercedes-Benz have already started their operations up again. Nissan Motor Co. plans to restart this week. Car sales in China have been reduced by 92% according to CPCA. As people remained in their homes nothing was produced. Even the Beijing Auto Show was postponed due to the outbreak.