French automaker Renault is reportedly considering closing four sites in France, including Flins, which assembles the electric city car Zoe and the Nissan Micra, as part of a vast economy plan to be announced next week, according to Le Canard Enchaîné .
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The Choisy-le-Roi, Dieppe, Caudan, and Flins sites
The diamond group must unveil on May 29 the outlines of a vast savings plan of 2 billion euros announced in February, according to close sources. "Four factories would be closed in France: Choisy-le-Roi, Dieppe and the Foundries of Brittany, to start. The big piece, Flins (....), will come later," the weekly said, without citing a source. . Questioned by AFP, the management did not wish to comment. No comments either to the Ministry of Economy.
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"There are discussions. Nothing is frozen"
The French government, Renault's largest shareholder with 15% of the capital, plans to guarantee a bank loan of around 5 billion euros for the manufacturer. But this aid would not mean giving up job cuts. "There are discussions. Nothing is set in stone," AFP said a source familiar with the matter, on condition of anonymity. In February, the management had mentioned the possibility of closing sites in France and abroad when presenting the annual results. "We have no taboos and we don't rule out anything," said Acting Executive Director Clotilde Delbos.
More than 3,600 employees work on these sites
Contacted by AFP, the CFDT and the CGT said they had "no precise information" on the economic plan. Fabien Gache, CGT central union delegate, said that his union should be received next Tuesday by management. The Flins-sur-Seine plant in Yvelines manufactures the Zoe (electric) and Nissan Micra city cars. It assembled 160,000 vehicles in 2019 and currently has 2,600 employees. Until last year, the site also produced the old version of the Renault Clio, which is now entirely outsourced to Turkey.
The Choisy-le-Roi plant in Val-de-Marne employs 263 people in the repair of engines and gearboxes used as re-use parts. That of Dieppe, in Seine-Maritime, has 386 employees and assembles the Alpine A110 sports model, a sports coupe with high-end ambitions very little sold. The production rate had been reduced to 7 vehicles per day at the start of the year. Finally, the Brittany foundry in Caudan, in the Morbihan region, produces cast iron parts for engines, chassis and gearboxes, with 385 employees.
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A manufacturer already in trouble before the coronavirus
Struggling before the coronavirus crisis, which caused the car market to collapse, Renault had suffered its first losses in ten years last year. The manufacturer saw its financial rating lowered in April to the rank of speculative investment by Standard and Poor's.