Jaguar Land Rover factory to stay shut until August

The luxury car group, which has its engine manufacturing centre at the i54 north of Wolverhampton, hopes to progressively reopen the site, which produces Jaguar XE, XF and F-Type Jaguars and employs 2,000, from August 10.

JLR has also entered into agreements with lenders in China for a secured term loan facility of £556.3 million, which its first debt financing in China.

Chinese banks will provide it with the three-year revolving loan.

In a statement JLR said: "Small pockets of business-critical activity are taking place at Castle Bromwich as Jaguar Land Rover prepares for new model year introductions.

"In China, we are beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales and customers are returning to our showrooms. Our joint venture plant in China resumed production in the middle of February. It manufactures Jaguar XEL and XFL for the Chinese market.

"As countries are relaxing distancing guidelines and retailers are reopening around the world, we will confirm the restart of production at our other plants in due course.

"We continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation and follow the guidance of all relevant authorities in the markets in which we operate.

"Production at Castle Bromwich is anticipated to start progressively from August 10 at the earliest and will be subject to market conditions."