AP
VW plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee: Nothing is rolling off the assembly line here either
In the past few days, events in the automotive industry have overturned: Because of the Corona virus-Pandemic, car manufacturers and suppliers had to shut down their plants and temporarily shut them down – first in Europe, now almost everywhere in the USA.
So nothing is rolling off the assembly line in the car industry anymore? Not quite, because automakers are as global as few other industries. In China, for example, most of the factories are already up and running again because the infection rates with Covid-19 have recently dropped sharply and there have been no new infections for several days.
Therefore, the Chinese authorities have relaxed the strict restrictions on the economy. And numerous other countries have not (yet) been affected by strong outbreaks of the corona virus, which is why economic life is continuing normally for the time being. Here is a brief overview of the most important car manufacturers and suppliers, as of Monday, March 23.
The Volkswagen Group has now suspended production at its European locations nationwide: since Friday, all VW brand plants in Europe have been closed for two weeks for the time being. The main Porsche plant in Zuffenhausen and the Leipzig location have been closed for two weeks since Saturday. The three Skoda locations in the Czech Republic temporarily closed their bulkheads on Wednesday, and the restart is planned for April 6 at the earliest. At Audi, all European plants and the plant in Mexico have been idle since today – “probably for a long time,” as the works council announced.
The Bugatti studio in Molsheim has also been open since Friday, March 20th. silent – as well as the truck plants of the VW commercial vehicle brands Scania and MAN throughout Europe, which now operate under the name Traton Group. The Group’s factories in Spain, Portugal and Slovakia, as well as the Lamborghini factory and the Ducati factory in Italy are also closed. This means that most of the Volkswagen Group’s plants in Europe are closed for two to three weeks.
In the United States, VW closed its plant in Chattanooga on Saturday – but only for a week for the time being. The two large Mexican plants in Puebla and Guanajuato are now also closed until further notice for reasons of health protection. VW’s plant in Pune, India, has also been closed since Sunday. VW plans to close its four plants in Brazil for ten days from March 31. However, the following applies to all closed works: A small sub-area could soon start working again. Because VW plans, like several US automakers, on the company’s own 3D printers Manufacture parts for ventilators.
After all: In China, said Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess last Tuesday, the car factories almost all resumed production.
The Stuttgart-based carmaker Daimler initially largely stopped its production in Europe for two weeks last week, but closings could also last longer if the pandemic situation required it. Mercedes-Benz will also shut down its plant in India this week. At Daimler’s US plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and at the commercial vehicle plant in Charleston, South Carolina, the belts are now also at a standstill for at least two weeks. Likewise in Brazil, where work has been suspended for four weeks from this week. And at Daimler’s Transporter plant in Argentina, production is now suspended until March 31 due to a government order.
Apparently, work is still carried out in the Daimler Trucks North America plants: For its US commercial vehicle subsidiary, the group reports that it is “also closely monitoring the current situation so that it can react quickly and very flexibly to new developments”. For the time being, however, the Group will maintain its service network of around 3,000 bases for commercial vehicles – i.e. trucks of the Mercedes-Benz and Fuso brands and Daimler buses – wherever it is organizationally possible and legal or official requirements do not conflict with the operation. And in China, work at the Daimler plants has resumed, the Stuttgart company announced a few days ago.
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