Floods shut down the Stolberg copper factory in Aurubis

Aurubis AG, Europe's largest copper producer, said on Friday that flooding had halted production at its Stolberg copper plant in Germany.

The company said the delivery time of factories hit by floods on Wednesday night would be affected by force majeure.

A spokesman for Aurubis said no employees were injured in the flood and Aurubis expected the economic losses caused by the flood and production losses to be covered by insurance.

The Aurubis Stolberg plant, located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia near Aachen, produces about 35000 tons of copper products per year.

Aurubis said that the surrounding passageway and the entire nearby urban area were flooded or even washed away, which had a strong impact on the whole. The preliminary damage assessment made it clear that the flooding had permanently affected the office space of the entire company and that it would take considerable effort to restart operations.

It is still uncertain when the factory will reopen.

Schwermetall Halbzeugwerk, another Aurubis Group factory in Stolberg, was not affected by the flood because it was located on higher ground.