Coronavirus: Hydro cuts production at several extrusion sites

Hydro said the Coronavirus situation continues to weigh on the company’s markets and operations. This affects production at several extrusion sites, mainly in Europe. Around 35 percent of the sites running at reduced levels and around 20 percent either closed or running at very low levels.

Around 45 percent of the extrusion sites are running at approximately normal levels. The market uncertainty is high across Bauxite & Alumina segment and Primary Metal.

“From a Hydro perspective, the impact from the Coronavirus situation is becoming more visible in the Extruded Solutions business area with an increasing number of sites affected by the situation with reduced production at several sites,” Hydro said.

Primary production operations are mostly running as normal. The recycler Azuqueca, Spain, has been temporarily idled this week, while recyclers Luce in France and Clervaux in Luxembourg were temporarily idled last week.

 “Hydro’s corporate emergency team continues to work closely with all business areas to coordinate contingency planning and implement mitigating measures across the company to ensure safe working environment at plants and preparedness plans fit for purpose.” 

“Hydro is supplying material and products to customers having key roles in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Selected deliveries to the health sector include Hydro Extrusion Spain supplying profiles for three new field hospitals and Hydro Cressona supplying extrusions used to make emergency response equipment and key infrastructure, supporting customers deemed critical to fight COVID-19.”