Stainless steel producer Aperam to pause production at some European lines

London — Aperam has decided to halt output temporarily at some of its European production lines as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, the Luxembourg-based stainless steel producer said Thursday.

Measures introduced by several governments in terms of health and safety, hygiene and border closures "are heavily impairing our ability to continue receiving supplies and production," the company said in a statement.

As a result, "we have decided in coordination with our social partners to temporarily pause production at some of our European production lines where deemed necessary," Aperam said, without giving details of which sites would be affected.

Aperam shipped 1.722 million mt of stainless and electrical steels last year from its production facilities in Europe and Brazil.

Alongside the Timoteo plant in Brazil, the company has five main production facilities in Europe at Chatelet and Genk in Belgium and Gueugnon, Isbeurges and Imphy in France.

The measures are expected to take a few days to implement, depending on the operations, the company said, adding that it also continues to maximize home working wherever possible.

Potential restarts and future output levels "will be adapted in line with future measures ordered by authorities, the related impact on our workforce and the production situation of our customers," Aperam said.

"Our flexible multi-plant production set-up will minimize the impact for customers," the company said, adding that all its service centers were continuing to work normally at the moment.

"We will continue to monitor the situation carefully and remain fully committed to adapt our actions in the best interest of our stakeholders," Aperam said.