Elisabeth Borne would probably have preferred another announcement, two days after her appointment to Matignon. Philippe Guillemot, the new CEO of Vallourec, manufacturer of seamless tubes for the oil and gas industry, announced on Wednesday May 18, on the occasion of the presentation of the results for the first quarter of 2022, the elimination of 2,950 jobs worldwide , including 320 in France: 65 at the headquarters in Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine); 104 in its factory in Saint-Saulve (North), which will close; and less than 100 in Aulnoye-Aymeries, near Maubeuge, which will retain its two factories and become the group’s global R&D center; the rest at the Valenciennes service center.
The management of the group, 41% owned by the American funds Apollo and SVPGlobal, believes that the loss of liquidity had become unbearable and threatened its survival. The plan will be spread over 2022-2023 and the restructuring will, according to Mr Guillemot, increase the gross operating surplus by 230 million euros per year, which will make it stronger and more efficient. He had been losing 100 million ebitda (the equivalent of operating income) per year for seven years in Germany, he said, and soaring energy costs made any prospect of recovery illusory.
Anger of employees
The unions acknowledge that they expected this plan. This announcement does not alleviate the anger of employees, tossed about by five social plans in ten years and determined to fight to obtain the best possible compensation. “Vallourec had public money to make investments in Brazil and China, they are going to build factories there and France is the winner”denounced Michaël Tison, CFDT delegate from Saint-Saulve, after the announcement of the plan.
Its impact should be limited in France, where 350 jobs had already been cut during the plan completed in February 2021, out of a total of a thousand worldwide. In the new one, a third of employees will retire, take early retirement or take an internal redeployment position; Mr. Guillemot indicated that the others will benefit from a ” accompaniement “, but without specifying the modalities or the financial envelope. On the other hand, Germany is hit hard. In the absence of a credible recovery by the employees of the site put up for sale in November, 2,135 positions will be eliminated and the activity transferred to Brazil. Saint-Saulve no longer had any industrial raison d’être, according to management, since it ensures the finishing of products from across the Rhine.
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