CNH Industrial has temporarily suspended operations at four of its manufacturing plants in northern Italy to implement new measures to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
Reflecting the emergency restrictions announced earlier this week by the Italian government, the temporary shutdown affects the plants in Brescia, Suzzara, Piacenza and San Mauro Torinese, and a total of more than 4,000 staff.
New measures include intensive sanitisation and deep-cleaning of all work and rest areas, changing rooms and related facilities to ensure that staff are safe and protected. Also, employees are not allowed to come within 1m of one another, which we are informed could result in adjustments to some production lines.
Producing vans, trucks, fire-fighting and military vehicles and construction machinery, none of the four plants make agricultural machinery or components. Brescia and Suzzara are scheduled to re-open on Monday and Piacenza on Wednesday.
A company spokesperson told us that while the new guidelines are also being implemented at the New Holland tractor plant at Jesi (home of the T4 and T5, and Case IH and Steyr equivalents), production is unaffected. It is business as usual, is the message, and farmers are still buying new tractors.
