Steelwrist: COVID-19 action ‘working well’

Swedish tiltrotator specialist Steelwrist says the early action it took to combat Coronavirus have “worked well” even though the company has operated with reduced capacity for the past two weeks.

The company emphasised that it is remaining open through the pandemic and aims to maintain customer service levels in terms of products, spare parts and support.

But it is monitoring the situation daily and did not rule out further action if this becomes necessary.

A statement on the company website said: “As you already know COVID-19 is hitting society extremely hard and very fast. The impact is global with large consequences on public health and welfare but also on business around the world. Within Steelwrist we implemented measures early on to try to protect our employees as well as our customers.

“So far, the measures taken have worked well and we have managed to have good delivery capability with short lead times and very high delivery precision.

“In the post-Corona period we see good signs in that government spending will have to increase in order to get the different economies going, and in many cases this spending will come through infrastructure investments. We all know that infrastructure projects will be good for the excavator business globally, and as we now have people in 19 countries we expect to be there fighting for this business in a few months when we have the Corona crisis behind us.

“The short-term problem is however that major customers and various countries are shutting down operations and even if we have the capacity to deliver there are sometimes no personnel around to receive goods.

“As a consequence, we must take action not to increase financial risk, and since Friday March 27 Steelwrist has reduced work time for all employees. This is a reduction in capacity but not a shutdown.

“It is important for you to know that we will keep operations open and do our utmost to serve you with products, spare-parts and support all through these difficult corona infected times. We will make sure we continue having short delivery times coupled with high delivery precision.

“Obviously, we will evaluate the situation on a daily basis and take additional actions if need be. We will try to keep you informed on a regular basis about the status and what other measures we might take.”