THEhe “Doctor Macron” was on tour in the North, Friday, November 19. At around 1:30 p.m., he had to push open the door of the Aulnoye-Aymeries health center to show that he was concerned about the well-being of the inhabitants of this town in the department. Some emergencies will make the visit more tense. The day before, the government had already had to come to the aid of Ascoval, the steelworks of Saint-Saulve, not far from there, in the suburb of Valenciennes, threatened with relocation to Germany by its new owner, Saarstahl. Project quickly abandoned. But a new fire threatens, precisely in Aulnoye.
At 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, according to the local newspaper, The Observer of Avesnoie, There was to be a strike and a rally of staff in front of the Vallourec factory, the most famous employer in the town. The company, former owner of Ascoval, announced Thursday, November 18, a new restructuring which will result in the sale of all of its industrial activities in Germany, which will be transferred to Brazil. The Aulnoye workers fear they will be next on the list.
Leaving Germany is quite a symbol for a company whose past fortune has been linked to a German technology, that of seamless tubes, invented by Mannesmann, a metallurgy giant in Germany, whose tubes activity has been merged. with that of Vallourec in 1997. This was the starting point for the international expansion of this company, which has become the world leader in the specialty and ephemeral star of the CAC 40. A spectacular but fragile expansion.
Debt converted to capital
It was built on the development of the oil and gas market, which today represents two-thirds of turnover. A profession very dependent on the investment campaigns of oil companies, themselves linked to the price of the barrel. From 2014, the results started to falter. The company has developed in the United States, to follow the spectacular development of shale gas and oil and in Brazil, the new eldorado of black gold. In this country, Vallourec even bought iron mines to better control its supply. These heavy expenses took a toll on the company’s finances as oil prices began to plunge.
The company finally got its head out of the water when the health crisis of 2020 once again plunged it into hell
After heavy restructuring which led the State to participate in a capital increase in 2016, the company finally got its head out of the water when the health crisis of 2020 plunged it again into hell. In June 2021, a good chunk of the debt was converted into equity, giving power to US funds SVP and Apollo.
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