[ferro-alloys.com]Italy's luxury sports car-maker Ferrari NV said Friday it was delaying the restart of production at its Maranello and Modena plants by almost three weeks to May 3 after the government extended a countrywide lockdown.

Ferrari, like Lamborghini and Italy's largest car-maker Fiat Chrysler, first announced it was halting production in Italy in March due to a disruption in component part shipments amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Ferrari had said it would suspend activities at its Maranello and Modena production facilities until March 27 after experiencing serious supply chain issues which no longer allowed for continued production. It extended the production suspension in the last week of March until April 14 providing no new issues emerged with supply parts provisions, the company said at the time.

In the interim, all work will continue as long as it can be managed remotely, Ferrari said in the statement released late Friday evening.

Ferrari "will continue to pay days of absence for all of those unable to adopt this solution, as it has done since closure of its premises on March 14," the company said. The "most stringent" health and safety standards will then be imposed, it said, without elaborating.

Italy is one of the hardest-hit nations in the escalating Covid-19 crisis, with preventive measures introduced by the government since the start of March being increasingly tightened to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly in the country's most affected areas which includes the town of Maranello.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]