Low front-line employee arrival rate affects capacity recovery——
SMEs still have problems to resume after restarting production
Our reporter Zhu Junbi
Compared with the resumption of production and recovery of enterprises above the national scale, there is still a certain gap in the resumption of production of SMEs. The data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently showed that as of March 2, the resumption rate of small and medium-sized enterprises across the country was about 45%.
"From the perspective of the resumption of work of SMEs across the country, the overall resumption rate of manufacturing enterprises is slightly higher." Song Song, director of the Political and Research Division of the China Small and Medium Enterprise Development Promotion Center, said.
"According to surveys by some manufacturing industry associations, the return rate of small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry is 56% to 82%, the return rate of personnel is 70% to 80%, and the capacity utilization rate is 40% to 60%." The Enterprise Development Promotion Center (hereinafter referred to as the "center") continuously tracking surveys of more than 300 manufacturing SMEs across the country showed that the capacity utilization rate had increased from less than 50% on February 20 to about 60% in early March. "Some workers in resumption enterprises are mostly administrative staff. The low on-line production and technical staff's employment rate has affected the recovery of production capacity."
From a regional perspective, Shanghai SMEs generally report that the local government provides more thoughtful and detailed services for the resumption of business, so the overall resumption situation is better, with 85% resumption and 80% capacity utilization. "Beijing 58 Daojia Information Technology Co., Ltd. reports that the current rate of resumption of housekeeping business is only 30%, and the rate of order acceptance in logistics business is only 20%. Several other high-tech companies in Beijing report that the current rate of resumption of work is 40% to 80%, and the capacity utilization rate 20% to 60%. "Song Yan said that the resumption rate of small and medium-sized enterprises in Wuhan, which is the core area of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, is also not optimistic.
"It is understood that the difficulties faced by SMEs in the resumption of production at this stage are mainly concentrated in the shortage of materials, blocked personnel and logistics, and shortage of funds." Song Yan said that most companies generally reflect the masks, temperature guns, etc. necessary for resumption of work. Protective supplies are extremely scarce. In order to resume work, enterprises have to do everything possible to purchase at high prices through various channels, and the cost of returning to work is high.
In addition, the flow of people and goods was hindered, preventing business from functioning properly. At present, some provinces have had no new cases for several days, and some provinces and cities have lowered their emergency response levels. However, personnel exchanges between provinces are still not smooth.
"Many small and medium-sized enterprises are located at the junction of urban and rural areas or townships. They have the most stringent controls. Employees cannot come to work, and people cannot move in and out freely. Even if local employees have already returned to work, the goods cannot be brought in or transported out, nor can real recovery be achieved. "Song Song said that many companies report that although they have resumed work, they are only using the raw materials purchased before. "Because the resumption of work in various places is uneven, the upstream supply chain cannot supply normally, and the external processing process cannot be completed. As a result, the resumption of production in the entire industrial chain has not yet been achieved. At present, the capacity that has been resumed cannot be effectively used."
At the same time, the pressure on rigid expenditures and the intensification of capital shortages are the most "headaches" for SMEs. "Existing projects can't fulfill the contract in time to recover the payment, and new projects can't be implemented. Costs such as wages, rents, loan principal and interest, and epidemic prevention are still rigid. Raw material prices have risen more severely. SMEs generally feel that financial pressure is increasing." According to the survey, most SMEs will face a severe test of insufficient liquidity by April.
"At present, the biggest appeal of small and medium-sized enterprises facing difficulties is loan funds." Liu Xing, deputy general manager of the Pratt & Whitney Finance Division of Bank of China Beijing Branch, told reporters that small and medium-sized enterprises related to epidemic prevention materials have a large demand for funds due to the surge in orders. For various reasons, the small and micro enterprises affected by the epidemic can maintain their book liquidity for only one to two months. "Most SMEs have difficulties such as funding difficulties or difficulties in repaying loans due."
The outbreak sounded alarm bells for SMEs. The policy of "transfusion" rescue, enterprises have to "stop bleeding" to save themselves. "The government's supportive policies can alleviate the difficulties encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises, but the real defense against risks depends on the strength of the enterprise itself." Song Yan said.
Zhang Kejian, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that also facing the impact of the epidemic, some traditional labor-intensive SMEs were relatively affected, but some "specialized and new" SMEs have relatively strong anti-risk capabilities and resumed work. The production speed is also relatively fast. As of February 27, the rate of resumption of work for more than 20,000 provincial “specialized and special new” SMEs in the country has reached 53.6%; the first batch of 248 specialized and special new “little giants” enterprises resumed work announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology The rate has reached 91.4%.
"This fully demonstrates that mastering key core technologies and capabilities is the magic weapon for the majority of SMEs to respond to the impact of the epidemic and achieve transformation and development." Zhang Kejian said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will guide some traditional labor-intensive SMEs to continue operations in the next step. At the same time, there is also the opportunity to embark on the road of "specialized and special new" to realize transformation and upgrading.
For some traditional labor-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises that have difficulty in resuming work in the short term, Song Kun suggested that they could resume work in batches as needed. "When the market has not yet recovered, on the one hand, we must strengthen our thinking and research on future development strategies and strengthen the development of new products and new models; on the other hand, we can train employees through the network, improve their stickiness and labor skills to the enterprise, and increase production efficiency. lower the cost."