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With lockdowns, no cars were sold for the entire month of April in Shanghai

Shanghai reported zero car sales last month as China pressed ahead with its stringent pandemic control measures.

China’s largest metropolitan area, with 25 million people, has been under strict lockdown for seven weeks. Authorities have ordered people to stay home and close many businesses as they try to put a stop to the city’s worst Covid-19 outbreak.

Although authorities announced last Monday that they will allow “low levels of activity” in some areas, several residents told CNN international who were not allowed to leave their residential complexes.

Covid restrictions have had a severe impact on the city’s auto market — nearly all dealerships have closed and no sales have been recorded, according to a statement from the Shanghai Auto Sales Trade Association released on Monday.

Overall, car sales in China were down 46% in April to 1.2 million vehicles, compared with March. It was the worst April sales in a decade, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said last week.

China has imposed strict restrictions as it fights the biggest Covid outbreak in more than two years. More than 30 cities in China are under total or partial lockdown, affecting up to 187 million people across the country, according to calculations by the CNN .

Shanghai is extremely important to the Chinese auto industry.

The city ranks first in overall car sales—some 736,700 new vehicles were sold in Shanghai last year, the most of any Chinese city, according to statistics from the country’s top insurance regulator.

It’s also a major manufacturing hub, home to automakers like Tesla and Volkswagen, as well as major parts suppliers Bosch and ZF Group.

The lockdowns in Shanghai and other cities have caused major supply chain disruptions and affected consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy.

Tesla’s sales in China were down 98% in April from a month earlier, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. Its production at the Shanghai plant also dropped by 81%. It’s a drastic turnaround for the US automaker after a strong start to the year in mainland China.

Toyota said last week it had suspended operations on 14 production lines at eight factories in Japan because of parts shortages resulting from the lockdown in Shanghai.

Nissan Motor also reported a 46% drop in sales in China from a year ago.

— CNN’s Teele Rebane and Hong Kong’s Lauren Lau contributed to this story.

Source: CNN Brasil

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