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Albany's Machine Clothing operational amidst Covid-19

07 Apr '20

3 min read

Pic: Albany International

Albany International, a manufacturer of engineered components, announced that in early March, the company formed a Covid-19 Task Force to help protect the health and safety of employees and suppliers. Company’s Machine Clothing (MC) operations worldwide are operational and continue to supply products to its global customer of pulp and paper manufacturers.

The company-wide, cross-functional Covid Task Force reportedly meets regularly to stay abreast of latest public health and other developments, and to adjust Albany’s policies and practices as needed. The mission of the task force is to ensure that the company remains compliant and current with best practices, including the implementation of social distancing requirements at their facilities, to help ensure the health and safety of its workforce on a global basis and to respond quickly to any health, safety or business challenges the company faces during the pandemic.

Albany reported that among the products which are continuously supplied are industrial belts critical to the production of tissue and non-woven materials used in a wide variety of health and hygiene applications.

Within the Albany Engineered Composites (AEC) segment, operations have been disrupted at certain facilities. In response to market conditions and in close coordination with their customer, Safran, the company is temporarily suspending production at its Albany Safran Composites facilities, which produce components for the LEAP aircraft engine, in Commercy, France; Rochester, New Hampshire; and Querétaro, Mexico. The lengths of the production suspensions may vary by facility, and the resumption of operations will be undertaken in coordination with Safran and in compliance with all local, state/provincial, and national guidelines or directives, as company reported.

Additionally, the company has halted operations at one of its two AEC production facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah, after an employee at that facility tested positive for the coronavirus. The facility, which has a staff of about 70, is expected to be closed for up to two weeks as the employees from the facility self-quarantine and as the company conducts a thorough deep cleaning. There has been no impact to operations at the company’s larger Salt Lake City AEC production facility, which supports multiple programmes, including the Lockheed Martin F-35, the Boeing 787, and the Sikorsky CH-53K.

The company will provide a full report on its financial performance during the recently-completed first quarter as part of its regular quarterly earnings release on April 29.

During the first quarter, the MC segment experienced strong demand for its products across most of the principal grades of product. However, there is considerable uncertainty around future demand for the segment’s products as the global economy adapts to the ongoing pandemic.

In the AEC segment, the majority of our Department of Defense (DOD) programmes, which collectively represent over one-third of the segment’s revenues, continue to perform well. AEC also continues to perform on most of its non-Leap commercial programmes.

At this stage, given the uncertainty of the Company’s markets during the balance of the year, the Company is withdrawing its previously-issued financial guidance for 2020.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (JL)

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