Benteler temporarily halts production at almost all plants

Tube maker and automotive supplier Benteler says it has temporarily suspended operations at locations where it works with customers from the automotive industry. It is thus following the decision by numerous carmakers to temporarily halt production due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This affects almost all plants of the company’s Automotive Division in Europe, North and South America and South Africa, it tells Kallanish. Its Steel/Tube Division has also temporarily stopped or reduced production at some locations due to the pandemic.

As an international group represented in China, the company notes it has been working for weeks on measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. “We are using this knowledge for all our sites worldwide and have implemented a comprehensive and globally coordinated package of measures at an early stage,” it says.

”In close cooperation with the works councils, authorities and our customers, we have found solutions. These are, for example, mobile working, a reduction in overtime, unpaid leave or temporary part-time work,” the company says, and emphasises that “… the situation is constantly changing.”

Several German carmakers meanwhile have announced that they will gradually resume production at European sites in the course of April (see Kallanish 17 April).