BEIJING, May 12 (TMTPOST)— Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory first saw overseas exports since its reopening three weeks ago, the latest sign of progress that manufacturers in China’s industrial center have strived to made as Covid lockdown lingers.

Source: Visual China

A Marshall Island-flagged ocean vessel carrying 4,767 electric vehicles made in the Tesla Shanghai factory left Shanghai Nangang port on Wednesday, heading for the Slovenian port of Koper, Wen Hui Bao, a Shanghai-based daily newspaper under the state media company Shanghai United Media Group reported. The cargo is the factory’s first exported vehicles since it resumed production on April 19, after a three-week shutdown due to the Covid resurgence.

A day later, Shu Yuting, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) stressed at the regular press that the ministry will work with relevant authorities to stabilize production and operation of the foreign trade enterprises, focus on helping maintain their orders and market shares, ensure the smooth logistics of foreign trade, spare no gains to safeguard the integrity and stability of supply chain in the sector, and make open platforms better play their active role in stabilizing foreign trade.

Official data released on Monday showed China’s exports witnessed significant slowdown in the past month. In the first four months of the year, China’s exports and imports in US dollar terms expanded 10.1% year-on-year (YOY), and exports in April alone up 3.9% YoY, the slowest since June 2020, while imports that month were unchanged, compared with a 0.1% decline in March, according to the General Administration of Customs.

The fundamentals of our foreign trade remains positive in the long run and there are multiple favorable conditions and positive factors to maintain stable developments of the foreign trade, Shu commented on Thursday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has expressed his confidence in Shanghai plant’s reopening. “ I think we will see record output per week from [Tesla's factory in] Shanghai this quarter, albeit we are missing a couple of weeks," he said at the investor conference call when his company last month reported record high earnings for five consecutive quarters. Earlier this week, Musk confirmed Tesla had plans to expand the capacity of Shanghai Gigafactory, instead of building a new plant in China. In the first quarter, Shanghai plant contributed nearly 60% of the company’s global sales.