Hennion explained that flexibility was key for the Dunkerque smelter in France and that there was still a high level of market uncertainty for 2021.
“After a week, we decided to lower production, not a lot but enough to give us a bit of room for manoeuvre so that the workload on remaining employees would be manageable in case even more people [must take time off],” Hennion said in an interview with Fastmarkets
“Our production went down by only 15% for less than two months [over March and April] before we adjusted our product mix to meet the demand of our clients,” Hennion added.
Production at Dunkerque was then ramped back up over May and June – and was back to its normal capacity of 280,000 tonnes per year by July.
Hennion took over as managing director of the smelter earlier this year - replacing Guillaume de Goÿs and leaving...