Japan's Mazda not worried about China COVID lockdown

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Japan's Mazda not worried about China COVID lockdown

TOKYO Reuters -- Mazda Motor Corp does not believe that it will have problems maintaining production in Japan for the time being despite COVID lockdowns in China, as the automaker has sufficient inventories of parts, a company executive said on Wednesday.

A draconian two-month lockdown in Shanghai earlier this year forced the Hiroshima-based automaker to suspend production at its two domestic plants for 11 days due to a lack of parts.

One of the measures that we are taking to reduce the risk is to bring the inventory to Japan, said Takeshi Mukai, senior executive officer.

He said the automaker wants to make sure that it can withstand one month of COVID restrictions in China and another month of after-effects.

In August, Mazda said it would ask parts suppliers to increase stockpiles in Japan and produce components outside China as part of its efforts to strengthen its supply chain.

In November, activity for Chinese manufacturers and service industries fell to seven-month lows, as China sticks with its zero-COVID policies that aim to stamp out every outbreak, according to data released on Wednesday.

The curbs have caused a number of public protests over the weekend.