Hyundai's Czech plant set to restart after coronavirus halt

Hyundai Motor Co's Czech plant plans to restart on April 14 after a three-week production outage as part of efforts to fight the coronavirus, becoming the first of the three major carmakers in the central European country to resume work.

The car industry is central to the Czech economy and its closure since mid-March has had knock-on effects for the many companies that supply it.

Hyundai, which produced 309,500 cars last year, will start up again on next Tuesday but with two shifts rather than the usual three, a spokesman said.

Skoda Auto, the country's biggest exporter and a part of the Volkswagen Group, said on Wednesday it would extend its closure until April 27. TPCA, a joint venture of Toyota Motor Co and Peugeot, is expected to resume production towards the end of next week.