March 25 (SeeNews) - Austria-headquartered manufacturer of aircraft components and systems FACC said on Wednesday it will reconsider its plans to build a 33 million euro ($35.7 million) plant for airplane interior parts near Croatia's Zagreb due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
"Due to the current situation in connection with the COVID-19 crisis, it was decided to re-evaluate the investments in the Croatian location and to start the implementation after reassessing the prevailing market situation," FACC said in a statement on its 2019 financial results and its measures to protect the workforce and ensure economic stability amid the crisis.
"The need for the location to reduce production costs in the medium and long term is expressly stated," it added.
The revision of the planned Croatian investment is one of the measures taken to mitigate the impact of the crisis, along with activities to review the complete 2020 investment budget, to reduce fixed costs, and not to distribute a dividend for 2019, among others, FACC noted.
Croatian media reported in May 2019 that FACC was planning to compete the construction of the plant in Zagreb's Jakovlje industrial zone by the end of 2020, and to launch production in 2021.
FACC has purchased 13 hectares of land in Jakovlje for the purpose. The plant was said to be intended to produce parts for aircraft and engine manufacturers such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier and Rolls-Royce, employing 600 people.
Chinese state-owned AVIC Cabin Systems owns 55.5% of FACC.
($ = 0.923842 euro)