It's Now Volkswagen's Turn to Close Most European Plants

German auto giant Volkswagen said Tuesday it was preparing to shutter most of its European plants, joining a slew of other carmakers as the coronavirus pandemic disrupts supply chains and sends demand plummeting.

"Production will be halted in Spain, Portugal, Slovakia and Italy before the end of this week," CEO Herbert Diess said in a speech. "Most of the other German and European plants will begin preparing to suspend production, probably for two to three weeks."

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Volkswagen's powerful works council, which represents employees at the group, said separately that VW's closures would broadly take effect from Friday--and slammed bosses for not taking more urgent action.

"We believe this is too late! We expect an orderly exit from production now," Germany's works council chiefs said in an open letter.

VW staffers who have to work closely together on assembly lines don't understand why they should "risk infection" for "a few hundred more cars" when executives were already working from home, they wrote.

Diess said the VW group faced a "very difficult" year as the coronavirus epidemic wreaks havoc with the global economy. In a press release announcing the company's 2019 results, he said the coronavirus outbreak posed "unknown operational and financial challenges".

The group, whose stable of 12 brands includes Porsche, Audi, Seat and Skoda, declined to unveil an outlook for 2020.

Volkswagen said the volatile situation and the unprecedented shocks to supply and demand made it "almost impossible" to make a reliable forecast.

In a rare spot of bright news, VW said it had resumed operations in China, with the exception of its factories in Changsha and Urumqi, as the country appears to have turned a corner in the virus fightback.