Most businesses restore operations from Jan-April

A total of 407 industrial manufacturers above a designated size in Baotou, Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- those with annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) or more -- resumed work and restored production during the first four-month period of the year.

That represented a work resumption rate of over 97 percent, according to a report in the Baotou Daily.

Local officials said that since the COVID-19 outbreak, Baotou-based enterprises have benefited from a series of innovative policies.

These have included phased relief for company pension contributions, work injury insurance unit payments and extension of tax declaration periods issued by the city.

Officials said companies actively improved their efficiency by adjusting production structures, increasing sales in surrounding areas and increasing the proportion of direct supplies.

From January to April, Baogang Group’s production and sales of high value-added products -- represented by automobile steel, home appliance steel and high-grade pipeline steel -- were all at record highs.

Of this, there was output of 46,000 tons of cold-rolled products during the period, with a growth rate of 210.72 percent year-on-year. There were also orders involving more than 73,000 tons of hot-rolled high-grade automotive steel, with a growth rate of 36.91 percent.

Officials said that in order to respond to the impact of the epidemic, Baotou city has actively played a leading role.

It has done so by issuing a series of measures to ensure businesses met the requirements for work and production resumption.

It has increased support for secured loans and orderly and effectively assisted industrial enterprises to resume production, officials added.

From January to February, the added value of the manufacturers above a designated scale in the city increased by 5.8 percent year-on-year.