Apart from being an important international gateway, Shanghai is also a key point in industrial and supply chains at home and abroad.

To be more specific, the city is China's key industrial hub for automotive vehicles, parts and components, and 70 percent of the nation's imported raw materials used in the integrated circuit and chemical industries are shipped via Shanghai, said Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization.

"We are providing full support to the production resumption of large-scale industries and enterprises that are vital in the industrial and supply chains of the Yangtze River Delta region as well as China as a whole," said Zhang.

Wu Gang, vice-general manager of Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical Co Ltd, which is under Shanghai Huayi Group Corp Ltd, said, "We have so far restored 80 percent of our production capacity, up from half when the latest outbreak started in mid-March, so that production at downstream multinational corporations including BASF, Covestro and Huntsman can continue."