MOSCOW, March 26. / TASS /. Hyundai will suspend car production at its plant in St. Petersburg between March 30 to April 3 in connection with a presidential decree on the announcement of a non-working week in the country, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
"Hyundai Motor Company announces that, according to the decree of the Russian President, in connection with the difficult epidemiological situation associated with the spread of coronavirus, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus plant will suspend production for the period of March 30 to April 3," the company said.
Earlier, the Nissan plant in St. Petersburg announced a suspension of production for a week for the same reason.
Earlier this week automakers began to suspend production at their Russian factories due to problems with the supply of parts. Volkswagen and PSA have already announced a downtime, while Sollers also announced the risk of suspension of production of cars at UAZ and Ford Sollers. A significant part of the total Russian capacities for assembling foreign cars will undergo production suspension: in addition to Volkswagen and PSA, in particular, they have their own production capacities in Russia – Renault (plant in Moscow), Chinese Haval (plant in Tula), Mersedes (plant in Moscow Region), Nissan and Hyundai (plants in St. Petersburg).
Volkswagen closed most of the European sites last week due to coronavirus, PSA plants were closed in Europe until March 27. This was reflected in the Russian capacities of foreign automakers.
Volkswagen plants in Kaluga (production of Tiguan, Polo and Skoda Rapid) and Nizhny Novgorod (contact assembly of Skoda Octavia and Skoda Kodiaq) will go idle from March 30 to April 10. The company said that Volkswagen can now provide a stable supply of cars and spare parts to dealers and customers.
Groupe PSA will also suspend the plant in the Kaluga region from April 1 to 3 due to interruptions in supply due to the coronavirus. This plant, in particular, produces Peugeot 408, Citroen C4, Mitsubishi Outlander, Zafira Life minivan and Opel Vivaro van. After that, the plant will suspend work again: from April 6 to 10, its employees will go on collective leave.