Industrial parks in Pudong find a way to beat the lockdown

Milky Way is thriving despite Shanghai's closure.

The leading chemical supply chain service provider has four outlets in Laogang Town, Pudong New Area, where a district-wide lockdown was announced on March 28. However, they continued to operate normally, with the industrial park extending its nucleic acid testing services to their doorstep.

The company said that despite the lockdown, the four outlets reported a joint revenue of 520 million yuan in April, up 51 percent year on year. First-quarter revenues rose 70 percent to 2.15 billion yuan.

About 74 percent of the businesses in the industrial park have started up again, including Shanghai Desano Pharmaceuticals.

Desano is one of the biggest manufacturers of pharmaceutical raw materials used for making anti-HIV drugs. It is one of two local companies approved to make Pfizer's oral antiviral Paxlovid and Merck's Molnupiravir.

"There are about 500 workers under the closed-loop management," said Desano General Manager Ye Shilai. "Every day we arrange for shuttle buses to take them from the dorms to the workshops."

More than 50 percent of above-scale enterprises (with an annual main revenue of over 20 million yuan) in Jinqiao, another Pudong industrial town, have resumed operations.

BASF Catalysts (Shanghai) Co. has started up again with only a third of their staff and 50 percent of their production capacity.

Smart systems like robotics and remote control have ensured the stability of numerous companies, including Shanghai Tobacco Machinery Co and China Mobile (Shanghai) Industrial Research Institute.