(Yicai Global) July 22 -- Since production restarted in Shanghai last month, foreign-funded firms such as Sika China, Döhler and Voith Turbo China have been reducing the impact of Covid-19 on their operations by boosting investment in research and development and optimizing production capacity, along with low-carbon innovation and other means.

Sika China, Döhler and Voith Turbo China are all based in Shanghai’s Xinzhuang Industrial Park, where businesses above designated size have fully resumed operation since early June, when the city lifted a two-month closed-off management.

Sika China has recovered its capacity to the level before the epidemic, President Leo Zhang told reporters yesterday. Sika China, a unit of Switzerland-based chemicals and construction materials maker Sika, has even exceeded its pre-pandemic capacity and exported products to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries as it made up for delays.

Sika China also has begun a concrete recycling program. All of the firm’s plants are using renewable energy and have received government subsidies, Zhang added.

Döhler said it never paused production in Shanghai. The German food and beverage ingredients maker organized two production shifts and a small research and development team to stay in the local plant at the end of March, when closed-off management began, according to Roman Kupper, president of Döhler Asia Pacific.

From March to May, the company’s sales halved on a year earlier due to a slump in consumer demand. But through product innovation and cost optimization, Döhler’s sales jumped 22 percent in June from a year ago, exceeding its monthly target.

Döhler will continue to invest more in the Chinese market, with new facilities at its Suzhou plant expected to bring 10,000 tons of raw material capacity. In the second half, the firm plans to expand its workforce by about 25 percent, with new hires joining the sales and R&D teams, Kupper added.

Voith Turbo China ,the turbo division of the century-old German business Voith Group, will develop a new electronic drive system, with negotiations and signing of various new orders underway, according to Martin Wawra, CEO of Voith Turbo’s Mobility Division, adding that the company is optimistic about the second-half outlook.

Meanwhile, 197 industrial enterprises, 162 commercial firms, and 120 services sector firms in the Xinzhuang park, which are all above a designated size, have all fully resumed operations, according to Shi Hong, manager of the park’s enterprise services department. About 76 percent are foreign-funded companies.

In the first half, the drop of total output value of industrial firms above a designated size in the park shrank significantly compared with the same period of last year. The park brought in 11 foreign-funded firms in the first half, attracting USD38.2 million in foreign capital based on contracts signed, with actual foreign capital in place reaching USD44 million.

Editors: Peter Thomas