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French automotive giant, Groupe PSA, Monday, anounced a phased shutdown of operations at its production plants across Europe. The carmaker hinged the decision, among others, on the acceleration observed in recent days of serious COVID-19 cases close to some of its production sites, supply disruptions from major suppliers, as well as the sudden decline in the automobile markets.
A ststement issued Monday said the Chairman of the Executive Board with the members of the crisis unit decided the principle of the closure of the vehicle production sites, according to the following schedule and until March 27:
March 16: Mulhouse (France), Madrid (Spain)
March 17: Poissy, Rennes, Sochaux (France), Zaragoza (Spain), Eisenach, Rüsselsheim (Germany), Ellesmere Port (United Kingdom), Gliwice (Poland)
March 18: Hordain (France), Vigo (Spain), Mangualde (Portugal)
March 19: Luton (United Kingdom), Trnava (Slovakia).
It added that the closure of the mechanical sites will be adjusted accordingly, saying the site management teams will implement the site closure procedures locally, which will be done in coordination with the social partners.
Groupe PSA however maintained that until then, compliance with the barrier measures, going beyond the recommendations of the health authorities on the sites, are the best protection to prevent the spread of the virus.
PSA’s announcement came on a day Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) also decided that its subsidiaries, FCA Italy and Maserati, will temporarily suspend production across the majority of their European manufacturing plants.
According to FCA, the temporary suspension, which will be in effect through March 27, continues the implementation of a comprehensive set of actions in response to the COVID-19 emergency and enables the Group to effectively respond to the interruption in market demand by ensuring the optimization of supply.
In particular, the suspension of production is being facilitated to enable the Group to be ready to commence production promptly once market conditions allow, FCA maintained.
According to an official statement issued Monday, the updated production plan will temporarily close the following facilities with effect for the month of March:
Italy: Melfi, G. Vico (Pomigliano), Cassino, Mirafiori Carrozzerie, Grugliasco, and Modena;
Serbia: Kragujevac
Poland: Tychy
FCA had earlier announced that it has been proactively modifying production protocols at several plants including enhancing social distancing between employees at work-stations.
Across all facilities, FCA said it has increased cleaning and sanitization and other improvements for employee safety, adding that strict controls and security measures have been applied to canteens and to external access to all Group sites.
It stressed that at FCA offices, the company has accelerated the deployment of working remotely (‘Smart Working’) with this option now widely available to employees across the world.
The Group maintained that it will make use of these stoppages to implement revisions to production and quality control protocols to benefit their customers and enhance overall productivity.
The Group said it is also working with its supply base and business partners to be ready to enable its manufacturing operations to deliver previously planned total levels of production despite the suspension when market demand returns.
