Its employees learned the bad news at the end of an extraordinary CSE on Tuesday, January 11 in the morning: at the end of the allotted time, no buyer came forward to take over their factory, the Alvance Aluminum Poitou foundry, in Ingrandes-sur -Vienna (Vienna). “Chinese founder Huanxang gave up on Monday. He does not want a factory which is not yet diversified ”, explains Jean-Philippe Juin, CGT delegate and spokesperson for the workers’ intersyndicale.
The judicial liquidation of the automobile subcontractor, which manufactures aluminum cylinder heads for a single customer, Renault, could be pronounced by the commercial court within three weeks, unless a new stay is suspended – the deadline to find a buyer had already been postponed from October 20 to January 10.
In less than a year, four French automobile foundries have already closed: FVM in Villers-la-Montagne (Meurthe-et-Moselle), MBF Aluminum in Saint-Claude (Jura), the Fonderie du Poitou Fonte and, at the end of November 2021, the Aveyron company of metallurgy (SAM), in Viviez (Aveyron). More than 1,000 employees have been made redundant since the spring, while a study by Roland Berger, in 2020, underlined the risk of seeing more than 5,000 jobs disappear within ten years in the sector (40% posts). If the acceleration of the transition to the electric motor is forcing them to diversify in order to survive in the medium term, it is first and foremost, in the short term, the relocation of their production, to Spain or Turkey, which often harms French automobile foundries. .
“It is an aberration to close us”
But Alvance Aluminum Poitou still produces a cylinder head for Renault. “ They need us until 2025 ”, says Jean-Philippe Juin. Until the decision of the commercial court, the 320 employees of the foundry (285 CDI) therefore intend to play one last card. “ According to Roland Berger’s consultants, who surveyed our site, our foundry has the ability to turn around. But we must give us time to move towards the production of parts for hybrid and electric cars., explains the union representative. So we ask the government to take us under tutelage for two or three years, until we have diversified. It is an aberration to close us, as it is an aberration to close the SAM, when we have everything to succeed and tomorrow the parts for the electric will no longer find where to be manufactured in France! »
Bercy pleads for additional time to be granted to find a buyer
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