Although Emmanuel Macron intends to accelerate the reindustrialization of France, this announcement made last Thursday falls for the worst. The Chinese industrial group MA Steel, sole shareholder of the last French manufacturer of wheels and axles for trains Valdunes, announced that “it will not inject more money” into the company.
The Chinese industrial group was chosen in 2014 by the Valenciennes Commercial Court to take over the activities of Valdunes, then in suspension of payments. 345 jobs are at risk and production is now at a standstill, staff are on strike.
“A unique know-how that we let die”
“We are very disappointed, we have this wasteful impression of having let a company that was a flagship of France die, which allows trains to run at high speeds,” laments Diego Crispatzu, an employee of the company for 30 years, interviewed by BFMTV.
“They came and for nine years they still supported us financially,” the employee admits about the Chinese shareholder. “But they left a situation as they recovered it, without any improvement. We were in deficit, we still are today, but the market is huge, ”he assures, citing for example the questions in Ukraine“ that went to China ”.
The government is positioned
The elected staff have an appointment on Friday in Bercy. “We ask the public powers to rise up, we cannot let industries like ours die. We need concrete actions”, insists Diego Crispatzu.
Questioned by BFMTV, the Delegate Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, asked to continue with the activity, “to have time to search and find a buyer who knows the trade. An overnight stop would be totally unacceptable, but unfortunately the work just beginning.” It can take time.”
Source: BFM TV
