Inclement weather and severe flooding have forced German copper producer Aurubis to stop all production and deliveries at its flat-rolled copper plant in Stolberg.
The company announced on Friday that it had evacuated all its employees from the facility without any incident but had to shut down all operations until the weather improved. It added that the flooding at the plant seems to have impacted the company’s premises and it might be a while until it can restart operations here.
However, Schwermetall Halbzeugwerk, the company’s other subsidiary in Stolberg remains operational as it is not flooded because of being at a higher altitude.
The Stolberg plant makes and delivers semi-finished copper products and copper alloys and has a workforce of around 400. The facility also produces brass alloys for wire manufacturing at its foundry along with bronze and specialty alloys for pre-rolled strips.
Stolberg is part of Aurubis’ flat-rolled business segment, which reported revenue of €228mn in 2019-2020.
Flooding impacts German steelmakers
The current storms across Germany have forced steelmakers in the Germany-Benelux region to shut down operations. Companies include stainless-steel maker Dortmund, thyssenkrupp Steel, and ArcelorMittal’s Duisburg plant, according to media reports.
On Jul 15, Bilstein, a steel cold-rolling company in the region also suspended all its operations and deliveries, after its site in Hagen faced damages due to flooding. It added that customers should expect delays in deliveries as logistics were also affected by the weather.