Ford is idling its factories in Europe amid the worsening COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
"While the impact of coronavirus at our facilities so far has been limited thankfully, its effects on our employees, dealers, suppliers and customers, as well as European society as a whole, is unprecedented," Ford Europe president Stuart Rowley said in a statement. Ford said it would idle factories in Cologne and Saarlouis in Germany, as well as its Craiova plant in Romania, beginning Thursday, March 19.
Ford noted that "supplies to Ford manufacturing sites in Europe have been increasingly interrupted, while sales of vehicles across the industry have declined with dealerships required to temporarily close their sales operations in some countries."