Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said it had temporarily halted production at its Serbian plant due to disruptions related to components sourced from China, where companies have been hampered by the outbreak of a new coronavirus.
Planned downtime at the Kragujevac plant in Serbia has been rescheduled, an FCA spokesman said on Friday.
Production will restart later this month, the spokesman said, adding that the group did not expect the changes would affect total production forecasts for this month.
“We are in the process of securing future supply of the affected parts,” the spokesman said.
The automaker builds the 500L in Kragujevac.
The spokesman said the supply of audio system parts had been disrupted.
Output at the Kragujevac plant was about 40,000 units last year, Serbian media reported, or a quarter of total capacity.
FCA had said on Feb. 6 that it might have to temporarily close a European plant within two to four weeks if the impact of the coronavirus in China created supply line issues.
The Kragujevac stoppage marks the first time an automaker has had to idle a facility in Europe due to the virus.
The next few weeks will be critical for automakers. Parts made in China are used in millions of vehicles assembled around the world. China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, is a major hub for vehicle parts production and shipments.
Hyundai earlier this month suspended production in South Korea because of the outbreak, the first major carmaker to do so outside of China.
Bloomberg contributed to this report
