In normal times, the workers of the Ascoval electric steelworks would have been delighted with the good news: a full order book and the establishment of a team on Sunday to respond to it. But this beautiful industrial announcement is tainted by the surge in energy and raw material prices, linked, in part, to the invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24 by Russia.
“There is not yet a shortage, but, on certain steel grades, it is starting to be complicatedexplains Nacim Bardi, CGT representative of the Saint-Saulve plant (North). We are fooled because, on nickel, for example, there are stocks, these are not shortages, just market speculation. » The German steel group Saarstahl, which took over the reins of the northern site in the summer of 2021, as well as the site of Hayange (Moselle), hopes “the fastest possible de-escalation of the situation” in Ukraine. For the moment, management indicates that “the supply of Saarstahl Ascoval is currently not affected”. Corn “Rising energy costs continue to be a heavy economic burden”.
As in Saint-Saulve, the whole of the French industrial fabric is weakened by cost increases and the prospect of a shortage of certain raw materials exported in particular by Russia. In Normandy, the Norwegian Yara nitrogen fertilizer plant has decided to reduce its production by 45%, in particular of ammonia, the gas representing three quarters of the manufacturing costs of this chemical compound. Same decision in the chemical valley, near Lyon, where the aspirin specialist Seqens partially suspended its operations due to energy prices.
“Probably having to produce at a loss”
Aluminum Dunkerque, the largest aluminum production unit in Europe, located in the North, had already taken cost-saving measures before the outbreak of the conflict. Despite the high price of aluminum, the company has suffered from soaring electricity prices, which come mainly from the Gravelines nuclear power plant (North), and has decided, from the fall of 2021, to put 31 tanks out of 264 were shut down, i.e. a 15% reduction in production.
While the State forced EDF to increase, from 1er April, of 20 terawatt hours (TWh) the ceiling of the Arenh, this electricity at regulated tariff that the public electrician has the obligation to yield to part of the competition, the factory still hesitates to restart certain tanks. “We expect as much as possible. But if we want to benefit from the Arenh, they must all be on their way to 1er April “, indicates Laurent Geeraert, CGT secretary of the social and economic committee.
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