Spanish Car Part Maker Gestamp Gets Access to Halted Wuhan Plant

(Bloomberg) -- The Chinese government has authorized Spanish car component maker Gestamp Automocion SA to partly access its plant in Wuhan that was shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak that began in the city located in the province of Hubei.

“We’ve already been given some partial permit, mainly to move stock,” Gestamp Chairman Francisco Riberas said in an interview in Madrid. Until recently, the company had no access whatsoever to the plant, “not even to move away some stored production.”

The company’s 11 Chinese plants have been progressively resuming their operations in last weeks. The factory in Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of the virus outbreak that have caused 93,000 infections globally, was the only one still halted.

Gestamp’s 2019 revenue in China amounted to 847 million euros ($941 million), 9% of total sales, the Madrid-based company said in an earnings release last week. The Wuhan plant accounts for less than 5% of the firm’s revenue in the country, Riberas said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net;Thomas Gualtieri in Madrid at tgualtieri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Charles Penty at cpenty@bloomberg.net, Thomas Mulier

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.