The last French manufacturer of train wheels and axles, Valdunes, in the North, will place 40% of its employees in partial activity in January and February.

The reasons put forward are the cost of energy and the lack of orders, we learned from unions and management on Monday.

The director of this company of 400 employees, Daniel Capelle, confirmed to AFP a decision to "limit energy consumption", due to "the costs of gas and electricity, which are prohibitive on our Dunkirk site and penalize our profitability ”.

He figures this additional cost at 200,000 euros more per month than a year ago.

"We will work every other week"

The equipment manufacturer forges steel ingots at its Leffrinckoucke site, near Dunkirk.

Heat treatment and machining are then carried out in Trith-Saint-Léger, near Valenciennes.

The partial activity must concern 40% of the employees in these positions.

Until the end of February, "we will work every other week", summarized Giovanni Doville, elected CGT to the CSE, after a press conference of the union.

According to the director, this surge in energy prices comes "at the wrong time" for Valdunes, which has been in deficit for several years and which must present its employees, on January 31, with a cost reduction plan to "return to profitability." 'next year ".

It pays for the slowdown linked to the health crisis

These difficulties are added to a thin order book.

According to the unions, the company must produce 68,000 wheels per year to start generating profits, against 24,000 expected for 2022. Daniel Capelle confirms a production "low at the level of the wheels, even lower at the level of the axles", linked according to him the slowdown in the rail sector with the health crisis.

The main customers of Valdunes are abroad.

Formerly a major customer, SNCF now supplies itself "from CAF in Spain, Lucchini in Italy, and in the Czech Republic", laments Ludovic Bouvier, regional secretary of CGT Métallurgie. After two years without orders, SNCF must buy 7,000 wheels from Valdunes in 2022 and 2023.

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