Hyundai Motor’s Czech plant plans to resume on April 14 following a three-week production outage as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus, becoming the first of the three major automakers in the central European country to restart work.
The auto industry is central to the Czech economy and its closure since mid-March has had knock-on effects for the many firms that supply it.
Hyundai, which produced 309,500 cars in 2019, will start up again on next Tuesday but with two shifts instead of the usual three, a spokesman said.
Skoda Auto, the country’s biggest exporter and a part of the Volkswagen Group stated on Wednesday it would extend its closure until April 27. TPCA, a joint venture of Toyota Motor and Peugeot, is expected to restart production towards the end of next week.
The first detection of the virus in the Czech Republic emerged on March 1. About 5,831 people in the country have been confirmed as being infected with the coronavirus. The virus has killed 189 people in the country.
