The global auto industry may be forced to close larger events as the virus spreads
The Beijing Auto Show in April will be postponed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the official announcement confirmed.
In a message posted on the event's website, the exhibition organizers said: "In order to ensure the health and safety of exhibitors and exhibitors, we, on behalf of the organizing committee for the 2020 (16th) Beijing International Automobile Exhibition (Auto China 2020), have decided to postpone the event, which was originally scheduled at the new and old sites of the China International Expo Center (CIEC) in Beijing from April 21 to 30 this year. The rescheduled date will be announced separately.
This latest move follows the postponed Formula 1 race in Shanghai and the canceled Mobile World Technology Congress show in Barcelona.
With travel bans on places, international flights and the streets of Beijing being regularly sprayed with chemicals in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, the decision makes sense.
When rumors began to circulate that the show had been postponed last week, the car tried to contact the organizers in Beijing as well as Chairman Wang Xia, but his email address, as well as the two executives' press relations, mysteriously didn't work, and the fourth executive couldn't answer.
Matters based in Paris organization OICA, the International Organization of Automobile Enterprises, under whose auspices the International Motor Show chain is organized, were transferred to Beijing. “We need to ask the organizers,” they told us.
The postponement of the show will be a blow to the Chinese auto industry, which is trying to recover from two consecutive market crashes in 2018 and 2019.
China remains the world's largest market for new cars, with 22,3 million registered last year. Until 2018, it enjoyed 20 years of unprecedented growth since the last recession in 1997.
In Beijing and Shanghai, motor shows are expanding to become globally significant, and they alternate on the calendar. Beijing receives about 800 visitors each year - about 000 of them from overseas - and hosts about 5500 exhibitors from 1200 regions.
Organizers next month at the Geneva Motor Show say they are monitoring the situation but their show will go ahead as planned. “So far, there is no cancellation of a member or partner,” a spokesman said. “But, of course, we analyze the situation and discuss it with our medical consultants.”
The Mobile Communications Congress (MWC), which attracts 100 attendees from 000 countries, was officially canceled last week just ten days before it was due to open on February 200th.
While organizers announced a series of measures to reassure attendees, including a ban on visitors from Hubei and passport checks for evidence of a recent trip to China, large attendees have begun to pull out.
“Given a safe and healthy environment, MWC Barcelona has been canceled due to global concern over the coronavirus outbreak,” MWC said in a statement.
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