Supply chain constrains caused by the Corona virus (COVID-19) emergency in Europe are behind CNH Industrial’s decision to suspend the majority of its European assembly operations for two weeks.
Effective immediately, the suspension applies to the company’s European agricultural, construction, commercial and specialty vehicles production facilities. On the ag side this includes the tractor plants in Basildon (UK), Jesi (Italy) and St. Valentin (Austria), and the combine plant at Zedelgem, in Belgium.
Most component facilities will remain operational at low speed, always in strict compliance with national health directives, in order to ensure the continuation of supply to the company’s manufacturing facilities located outside of Europe, which are all still up and running.
European parts depots and most dealer locations will also remain open to maintain uninterrupted service to its customer base. We understand that the company is comfortable with current parts stock levels, which we are informed is where they need to be at this busy time of the year.
“The company takes the health and wellbeing of its entire workforce very seriously, and we have implemented all measures to protect the employee population, as well as to help in the fight to contain the spread of the pandemic,” said CEO Hubertus Mühlhäuser of CNH Industrial.
CNH Industrial is not the first company to suspend its European operations and will probably not be the last. “The decision to shut down our European assembly plants for a two week period is driven by disruptions in our European supply chain, that do not allow for an efficient operation. During these temporary shutdowns, we will also undertake further extensive sanitisation and deep cleaning procedures,” he adds.
CNH Industrial’s COVID-19 global taskforce continues to monitor the situation in all markets in which it operates, and will take further measures as required.
