one of the two threatened sites escapes closure

The American-Spanish group Ferroglobe, one of the main world producers of silicon, announced, Monday, November 15, the lifting of the employment safeguard plan (PSE) initiated on the Clavaux site, near Grenoble, the one of the two Ferropem factories he wanted to close in the Alps. However, the eight months of negotiations did not save the site of Château-Feuillet (Savoie).

In the department, the news was greeted as a “Deliverance” by the 131 employees of the Clavaux site, who had chosen to continue the work to prove that their factory, threatened since March, was still competitive. Twenty-five jobs will also be created on this hundred-year-old site located in the former hydroelectric cradle of the Romanche valley, thanks to the transfer of a calcium disilicide production line, which until then operated in Château-Feuillet. “We knew that the lack of competitiveness invoked for the Clavaux was wrong and we chose to respond with work, even if the bet was risky. But the process paid off ”, rejoices Mourad Moussaoui, central delegate of the Force Ouvrière union in Ferropem.

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In a press release, Ferroglobe justified this turnaround by signing a new commercial contract with a “Historical customer” and an agreement with the French State, which will allow Ferropem, according to the Ministry of Industry, to benefit from an anticipated cash flow of 15 million euros. A new favorable financial context which allows the Ferroglobe subsidiary to “Reduce the social impact of the reorganization project presented in March 2021, while ensuring its competitiveness at all of its five French industrial sites”, underlined his parent company.

“Finding solutions for the territory”

At the end of an extraordinary central social and economic committee which was held Monday in Chambéry (Savoie), at the head office of Ferropem, Ferroglobe on the other hand confirmed the maintenance of the PSE initiated in March in Château-Feuillet, the another alpine factory of its subsidiary. The group, which promises “A redeployment plan and quality social measures” for its 226 employees, is committed to “Invest in finding solutions for the territory” by following in particular “Expressions of interest and associated industrial projects”.

The Ministry of Industry said that there were “always three or four interesting industrial interest marks” around the Château-Feuillet site.

“After having refused the long-term partial activity and now State loans, Ferroglobe is engaged in a voluntary homicide on the establishment of Château-Feuillet, by refusing an agreement of obligation of commitment to transfer to competitors “, however, deplores an employee on condition of anonymity. For Yannick Bacaria, Rhône-Alpes referent of the CGT National Federation of Chemical Industries, the planned closure of the Château-Feuillet factory, which was “The largest site in the French silicon industry”, constitutes a “Ecological nonsense” which will force France to import silicon from China, while the latter manufactures it with carbon electricity. “It is a lack of political ambition that will accelerate the climate problem”, he insists.

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