UPDATE: Force majeure statement of HME Copper Germany GmbH,
due to natural disaster

Dear business partners,

As communicated through our website publication and also individually to you, the Menden production site of HME Copper Germany was forced to shut down production during the night of July 14 to July 15, 2021 due to flood damage affecting machinery, equipment and technical infrastructure.

After a detailed assessment of the damage, our management team elaborated a detailed plan for the restart of the production and shipping areas. This plan envisaged that deliveries would be resumed on a limited basis as early as August and we were able to implement this plan step by step with the commissioning of the less affected facilities. Towards the end of August the more severely affected parts of the plant were also able to resume production, albeit not yet at 100%. At the present time normal operation of our plant is already possible again in many areas. The complete restart of production is planned for mid-September.

Nevertheless, we would like to point out that the force majeure situation will continue until further notice, as we have reduced our stocks of many products to zero due to the interruptions of the last few weeks and as a result an enormous backlog of orders has arisen, which will take the next few months to reduce.

Until then, however, we will make every conceivable effort to satisfy the most urgent requirements and to supply the market with HME products again as far as possible.

We also ask for your understanding that the consequences of the natural disaster will still accompany and affect us for a longer period of time.

We will keep you informed about further developments.