Major Stellantis car plant in Sochaux to restart production on June 6

PARIS (Reuters) -Stellantis' car plant in Sochaux in eastern France is expected to be restart production on Friday after a few days of stoppage due to the breakdown of its new-generation Chinese stamping press, a Stellantis spokesman told Reuters.

The outage came at a critical time of precarious supplies, as the car industry faces a new crisis linked to restrictions on the export of rare earth magnetic materials from China.

The press, introduced in 2020 for an investment of 33 million euros, allows great versatility in manufacturing different body parts for the Peugeot 3008 and 5008 SUVs.

Out of service since Monday, the press is due to restart on Friday morning and, if the tests are successful, car production will resume soon after, the spokesperson added.

The disruption, which resulted in the loss of 1,000 cars a day at one of Stellantis' main factories - which employs 3,000 workers - came at an unfortunate time, just a few days after new CEO Antonio Filosa visited the site after his appointment was announced.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, writing by Dominique Vidalon; editing by GV De Clercq)