ABB reinstates operations at flood-struck Novelis, securing global automotive supply chains
When catastrophic flooding struck the aluminum manufacturing facilities operated by Novelis in Sierre, Switzerland, the company faced a potential crisis that could have disrupted global automotive supply chains serving major automotive manufacturers. Working with ABB’s emergency response teams, Novelis restored critical operations within 60 days. Two years on, the restoration continues to serve as a model for industrial resilience and rapid infrastructure recovery.
National disaster hits critical suppliers
Torrential storms and melting snow hit the Sierre district of western Switzerland – known as the “city of the sun” – in the early hours of a June morning. Events took a devastating turn for the industry located in Sierre. Novelis’s plant was flooded overnight.
Novelis in Sierre is renowned for its fully integrated production process and plays a crucial role in supplying aluminum components to the automotive industry. The 24/7 Novelis plant processes over 200,000 tons of aluminum annually and for over four decades has produced high-quality aluminum sheets, collaborating closely with world-class automotive manufacturers to innovate and enhance vehicle design.
With critical infrastructure compromised and supply to automotive customers disrupted, immediate action was essential.
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The power of a seamlessly coordinated emergency response
Angeles Fernandez, Local Division Manager for Electrification Service in ABB Switzerland, immediately coordinated with AluInfra Services SA, which manages electrical infrastructure at the Sierre industrial site.
After flood waters receded and emergency services declared sites safe to enter, ABB teams assessed the extensive damage to critical electrical infrastructure and production equipment across the facility.
The scale of the challenge was immediately clear – with key systems compromised, restoring operations would require coordinated expertise across multiple specialties.
Serge Gaudin, Plant Manager at Novelis, recalls, “Our entire plant had been submerged for weeks, and mud and water had compromised the critical systems which power our operations. Minimizing downtime and restoring production as rapidly as possible was vital to maintain our standing as a trusted partner to our customers.”
To coordinate the recovery effort, ABB brought together expertise across engineering, sales, procurement and export control, deploying specialist engineers with deep knowledge of the compromised systems to manage the installation and commissioning of replacement equipment.
ABB worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Novelis teams to optimize their existing electrical infrastructure and get operations running at peak performance.
Across borders and around the clock
ABB mobilized specialist engineers from across Europe who worked under challenging conditions and demanding timelines. After successfully fast-tracking replacement parts ahead of schedule, ABB restored basic power operations by in just about a month’s time.
Fernandez said: “When a critical facility such as this faces disaster, standard timelines simply don’t apply. Our teams across Europe came together across divisions, borders and time zones, recalibrating our existing processes to act as an extension of Novelis’s operations.”
Two parallel teams then cleaned and tested equipment at the sites’ substations while replacement parts were transported across the continent. The substations were re-energized in September, a critical step to resume production on the hot rolling, followed by the cold mill – weeks ahead of initial projections.
Senior Project Manager Stefan Kumm from ABB’s Process Automation business was already in Switzerland for a separate Novelis modernization initiative, and swiftly pivoted to support the emergency response.
“Our first task was triage, determining what could be salvaged and what needed replacing,” Mr Kumm explained. “The sheer scale of the challenge became clear when we saw the mud-covered switchgear in the substations as well as the 160-ton main motor and hundreds of submerged control systems. Time was critical and every second counted.”
The successful restoration has since strengthened ongoing relationships between Novelis, AluInfra and ABB. “The speed of the response was critical for us,” said Gaudin. “ABB’s teams minimized the impact on our customers and ensured we could maintain our position in the supply chain during a very challenging period.”
The rapid restoration was a crucial contribution to resume production at Novelis’ Sierre plant and maintain continuity in the global automotive supply chain. It ensured the site could continue running consistently for its automotive customers and demonstrated how cross-border collaboration and quick response to infrastructure challenges can prevent wider industry disruption.
As extreme weather events become more frequent across Europe, the response in Sierre remains a benchmark for rapid industrial recovery.
