PSA to produce surgical masks at Mulhouse site in France

French automaker PSA said on Thursday that it would start producing surgical masks at its site in Mulhouse, located in eastern France from August.

The automaker said it would have a production capacity in the country of 10 million masks per month.

The training of teams committed to this project will be organized from June this year.

“Since the beginning of this crisis, the Group’s priority has been to protect its workers and we have decided to invest in this production, which will start this summer. This decision, shared with the trade unions, makes us collectively stronger to win against the Covid-19” said Xavier Chéreau, Director of Human Resources and Transformation of Groupe PSA.

The sanitary crisis has led the Group to go for a protocol of reinforced health measures at each of its sites to protect its workers. This protocol provides in particular for the distribution of two to four masks every day day for each worker.

To support the implementation of this protocol, the automaker has decided to be autonomous by producing masks in the country from August.

Machines are produced by a French company on the national territory. Production is set to be organized in two concomitant phases:

• From August 2020, an automated line will be implemented on the Mulhouse site and a dozen Group workers will be committed to the production of masks.
  In parallel, a second automated line will be put into operation at the French partner of the automaker, which will produce masks for the Group and will carry out the production for a year.
• From August 2021, this second line will be shifted to Mulhouse and the Group’s teams will, in this scenario, ensure all of the manufacturing.

About 10 million masks could be produced per month in Mulhouse, for the protection of Group workers and organizations fighting against the coronavirus.

The Mulhouse site has all the sanitary characteristics required to manufacture this kind of material.

Employees committed to the production of masks will be trained by the French partner of the automaker from June.