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10 I Companies & Markets bne May 2020 Central European automakers resume production with new social distancing measures in place
bne IntelliNews
Some of Central Europe’s largest automakers have announced plans to resume production weeks after shutting down operations due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Thanks to strict lockdowns in numerous states across Central and Southeast Europe, the infection rate in most of the region has failed to reach the explosive growth seen in some of the major West European economies, remaining in the hundreds or low thousands.
The other factor behind the decision of numerous automakers to resume work is that they have used the temporary shutdowns to put new social distancing measures in place, and in some cases launched extra shifts, to ensure workers are not operating in close proximity to each other.
Hyundai has already resumed production at its Nosovice plant in the Czech Republic, said company spokesperson Pavel Barvik on April 14. Production in Nosovice was suspended
on March 21.
“We will start slowly, which is the morning and afternoon shifts. This gives us more flexibility in terms of logistics and
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all processes,” Barvik said, adding that employees who would have been assigned to the night shift during the week will stay at home with 70% of their pay.
On the other hand, Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile producer (TPCA) announced today it would extend its outage to May 4, scrapping plans to relaunch on April 17. Skoda Auto has decided to remain closed until April 27.
The Nosovice factory is the only Hyundai plant in the European Union, employing 3,300 people in-house and 8,700 employees as subcontractors. In 2018, the company generated a profit of CZK7.22bn (€286.5mn) and sales of CZK129.26bn.
In neighbouring Slovakia one of the country’s automakers, Kia Motors, resumed production on April 6.
Among the country’s other car producers, Jaguar Land Rover had planned to reopen its sites in the UK and Slovakia on April 22, but has now extended the shutdown indefinitely,
as reported by the Financial Times. Volkswagen Slovakia is expected to reopen on April 19, while Groupe PSA, which also has operations in Slovakia, said at the end of March it is implementing reinforced health measures at its facilities to