Over the past few months, in the face of the global expansion of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many Chinese brands with a global presence have expanded their actions to prevent and control the epidemic and resume production and work from domestic to overseas. Chery Group, which has 12 production bases around the world and sells its products to more than 80 countries and regions, has turned its global network into a “joint combat formation” and started the “battle of defense” in overseas markets.
In the first quarter of this year, Chery Group’s overseas market started steadily, with a total of 27,000 vehicles exported. Not only has the export volume increased month-on-month for two consecutive months, but the actual sales data in Brazil, Russia and other markets has also hit a new high in the past five years.
The picture shows the “Chery” special train of the China Railway Express
According to a person from Chery International, while preparing epidemic prevention and control plans for major overseas markets, they flexibly adjusted their response strategies according to the situation in different periods. In the early stage of the epidemic, when the domestic auto market pressed the “pause button”, Chery urgently dispatched additional personnel to major overseas regions. On the one hand, it urgently raised medical supplies from overseas to help the domestic epidemic prevention and control, and on the other hand, it seized opportunities to break through overseas markets. In the first quarter, sales in many overseas markets reached new highs, laying the foundation. With the gradual spread of the overseas epidemic, Chery organized more than 40 overseas staff to evacuate and return to China in batches in an orderly manner. For staff who continued to stay overseas, they were instructed to work in isolation at home, helped coordinate resources, organized condolences to family members, and responded to needs 24 hours a day. Resolve worries.
Started the “Battle of Defense” in Overseas Markets
Up to now, Chery still has 37 overseas employees staying in Brazil, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and other countries. Among them, the longest-staying employee has not been able to return to China to visit relatives for nearly 200 days. Although these Chery employees who stayed overseas were faced with the increasingly severe overseas epidemic situation and the pressure of being unable to return to China in the short term, they still tried their best to overcome difficulties and explore how to carry out work in a complex environment, so as to stick to the local stable market and help overseas partners fight the epidemic together. The “retrograde” warrior.
Brazil is one of the countries most severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Xu Qingsong, General Manager of Chery International Brazil Region, and his team members all work in isolation at home. As big as the planning of new product line transformation, as small as the salary payment of project team personnel, Zhu Minggang, the manufacturing director of Chery’s Brazil plant, Xin Jiayun, the backbone of R&D, and others start work at 6 o’clock every morning. After that, it’s like installing a motor. In the early morning of the next day, the average working time per person exceeded 16 hours a day.
The picture shows the engineers dispatched by Chery to the Egyptian factory to help with production and commissioning
Chery’s plant in Egypt is one of the few overseas factories that has not shut down. In order to ensure that new products come off the assembly line, it is necessary to use the intermission period of production to increase the new items of collinear production under the premise that the existing production line does not stop. Since January, Chery has successively dispatched process engineers for welding, painting, and general assembly from domestic manufacturing engineering institutes to go to the Egyptian factory to “hand in hand” guide the Egyptian side to carry out project renovation and production debugging, and successfully complete the task of launching new products. The last batch of Chery engineers on the “retrograde” expedition did not return home until mid-April.
Watching and helping each other to overcome difficulties
In addition to providing anti-epidemic guidance and support services for overseas distributors and production plants, Chery has also continued to send emergency supplies overseas and provide various humanitarian assistance. Since the end of February, Chery’s overseas dealers and partners in many countries have successively sent requests for help. Chery immediately extended a helping hand and successively donated more than 800,000 pieces of various medical supplies to partners in more than 20 countries including Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, and Russia.
Chery donated materials to overseas partners and received thank-you letters from dealers
At the same time, Chery compiled domestic anti-epidemic experience and prevention and control measures into an “anti-epidemic book”, translated it and sent it to overseas partners. After receiving it, the Italian dealer was very moved, describing it as “life-saving straw”. Some overseas countries lack experience in diagnosis and treatment of related diseases in the early stage of the epidemic. Chery also actively matchmaking, helping local hospitals establish contact with domestic designated hospitals, providing remote diagnosis and treatment consultation, and overcoming difficulties with overseas partners.
Practicing hard to accelerate the brand “go up”
2020 is the 20th year that Chery has “goed out” and started overseas exports. Chery’s overseas users have exceeded 1.6 million. For Chinese brands that are accelerating their globalization strategy, how to deal with major global public events and various complex changes in the development of global economic integration is a topic that needs to be dealt with regularly in the future.
In Chery’s view, there are opportunities in crisis. Faced with the significant impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the global economy, including the auto industry, Chery regards the “freeze period” of the global auto market as a “gaining momentum” to improve internal strength, and seize the time to refine overseas market research and sort out the future Sales planning and product planning, speeding up the layout of new products, improving product quality, and waiting for the arrival of the inflection point of the epidemic.
In addition to practicing internal skills hard, Chery also accelerates the brand’s “going up” in overseas markets by promoting localized development. For a long time, in the process of overseas development, Chery not only strives to bring high-quality products and services to the countries where it is located, creates more employment opportunities for the local people, but also actively fulfills its social responsibilities and supports local disaster relief, environmental protection, education, people’s livelihood and other public welfare. business, fulfilling the promise of Chinese brands to local users, partners, and the public. In 2010, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred in Chile, and Chery was the first foreign company to provide aid projects for the earthquake in Chile among the relief efforts of the international community. In 2016, Ecuador was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake. In addition to donating materials to the disaster area, Chery also cooperated with the children’s rescue organization organized by the local government to provide special education funds for children in the disaster area. In December 2019, at the Summit Forum on the Overseas Image of Chinese Enterprises under the guidance of the State Council Information Office, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, sponsored by the China International Publishing Group, and undertaken by China Report Magazine, Chery won the “2019 Chinese Enterprise Overseas Image 20″ for the fourth time. powerful”.
