Trade Minister Havlíček: Honeywell to produce respirators in Olomouc

Deputy prime minister and minister of trade, Karel Havlíček has indicated that the Czech government is working to resolve the present lack of respirators for the home market once and for all. He says there is a project in the pipeline for respirators to be produced in the town of Olomouc, which would fully cover the country’s future needs.

Photo: ČTK/Petr Běhal

The coronavirus pandemic has seen the Czech government, like many others around the world, scrambling to secure enough respirators for health workers and other employees at risk. Deputy Prime Minister Havlíček says the government wants to make sure such a situation does not recur at any time in the future. He revealed that intensive negotiations have been underway with the American firm Honeywell on building a factory for respirators in Olomouc.

“We are about to close an agreement with the American industrial technology firm Honeywell for it to build a plant for the production of respirators in Olomouc which would churn out five million units a month. We will be self-sufficient,“ Trade and Industry Minister Karel Havlíček tweeted on Wednesday.

According to him, the state will not give the company investment incentives, but will commit to buying up part of the goods produced. “We will use the supply for Czech healthcare, energy, industry, material reserves management and we will still have an important export article. We will thus become fully self-sufficient and independent of imports in this area,” Havlíček wrote.

According to the deputy prime minister the plant is to be completed within four months. Honeywell has a large industrial background in the Czech Republic, and is reportedly ready to allocate 300 people to the new plant.

Honeywell has refused to comment on the news for the present time.

In 1993 Honeywell opened a development centre in Prague, the first facility of its kind outside the US. The company has production facilities and developers in Olomouc and Brno.