German supplier Webasto, which was hit hard in January by the coronavirus outbreak, this week restarted production at factories in Germany, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Some of those plants are already producing at 50 percent capacity and are poised to steadily increase that rate by early May, a spokeswoman told Automotive News Europe.
However, half of the roof system supplier’s European factories and all of its U.S. plants remain closed.
The outlook for both Europe and the U.S. is that production will re-start at the dormant plants at a much-reduced volume by late April to early May.
All of the supplier’s plants in China have resumed output and are producing at rates above 50 percent capacity, the spokeswoman said.
In the first two months of the year the company was shaken by an outbreak that infected 11 employees. All 11 people, of which nine were in Germany and two in China, made a full recovery.
Since mid-March, another 14 Webasto employees in Europe and the U.S. have been infected. All of them contracted the virus away from work, based on the company’s initial findings, the spokeswoman said, adding that they are all recovering.