In the face of an uncertain future in the mainland, Japanese car manufacturer Mazda wants to bolster its supply lines outside of China.
Mazda has been cutting production and stockpile resources outside its Chinese supply lines after years of compromised productivity due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
The supply chain included Japanese, European, and mainland Asian partnerships until now.
Senior Managing Executive Officer Masahiro Moro told the Japan Times that as we continue to do business globally, we must manage the current changes based on the recognition that we are no longer in the era of globalization as we were in the past.
The bottom line of Mazda was the most directly harmed by lockdowns in Shanghai, where computer chips are assembled for their vehicles.
The world's reliance on Taiwanese chips and Chinese factories that assemble most electronic devices was highlighted by the disruption in chip supplies after hampered production of goods from smartphones to autos.
The Chinese threat to attack Taiwan, which separated with the mainland after a civil war in 1949, has heightened fears of disruption.
Chinese manufacturers are expanding planned factories into Europe, after recovering from the COVID 19 lockdown.
In Hungary, Europe's largest electric vehicle battery maker, on Friday it would build a 7.3 billion euro $7.6 billion battery plant, as the world's biggest electric vehicle battery maker gears up to meet growing demand from global automakers.
CATL said the construction of the 100 GWh gigawatt hours plant in the eastern Hungarian city of Debrecen, its biggest overseas investment, would start this year after approvals and should last no more than 64 months.
After being built, it is set to be Europe's largest battery cell plant and CATL's second in the region, making battery cells and modules for carmakers including Volkswagen, BMW, Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz.