(Alliance News) - The UK government has asked the VentilatorChallengeUK consortium - a group which includes some of the biggest industrial, technology and engineering businesses in the country - to produce ventilator systems to aid in the fight against Covid-19.
The consortium includes London-listed firms such as Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, Melrose Industries PLC's GKN Aerospace, Meggitt PLC, Smiths Group PLC and BAE Systems PLC, as well as Airbus SE and Microsoft Corp.
Companies in the consortium have now received formal orders from the government for in excess of 10,000 ventilator units. Financial terms of the order were not disclosed.
"The consortium is now working at full speed to take the necessary steps in order to increase production of this design. Production will begin this week," VentilatorChallengeUK said on Monday.
Smiths Group confirmed it is contracting with the UK government for a "significant ramp up" in the production of Smiths Medical paraPAC plus ventilators. Production will "rapidly" increase from hundreds a month to thousands a month to fulfil 10,000 units.
BAE said: "Our role in VentilatorChallengeUK is to help ramp up production of a proven ventilator design, which has been supplied by a leading UK medical company to help those suffering from the virus. We will be providing integrated, tested sub-systems and components, which makes best use of our strong project management and engineering skills, while saving significant time during final assembly of the ventilators."
Shares in Rolls-Royce were down 12% at 322.00 pence in London on Monday, Melrose down 9.4% at 96.25p, Meggitt down 16% at 261.80p, Smiths Group down 0.5% at 1,097.19p and BAE down 1.8% at 507.00p.
By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com
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