The Usine Nouvelle's exclusive annual barometer confirms a halt to reindustrialization. Between January and November 22, 2024, we counted 71 industrial sites condemned or threatened with closure.
This count is not exhaustive. It is based on articles published on our site and our database supplied by all of our journalists, in Paris and in the region. It includes sites subject to receivership or liquidation, as well as those for which closure has been announced, even if it will not take place until 2025 or 2026. Compared to the 42 closures announced or threatened, the previous year, the deterioration is indisputable, even if certain sites can still hope to find a buyer (as did Ascométal or the glassmaker Duralex, ultimately taken over by its employees, earlier in the year). In one year, it marks an increase of almost 60% in the number of threatened sites throughout the country.
At the same time, L'Usine Nouvelle recorded this year 61 inaugurations of new factories and 43 extensions of existing sites. These could be new lines, logistics capacities or R&D centers. In all cases, we only take them into account when production has started and not when the investment project is announced. In itself, the number of inaugurations is not that low. It remains at the same level – rather high – as the previous year, which recorded 106 new sites or extensions. But due to the surge in the number of threatened sites, France is expected to once again destroy more factories this year than it opened for the first time since 2020 according to our exclusive count.
Energy continues to drive factory creations
The trend is less positive than the report published at the beginning of November by the General Directorate of Enterprises in Bercy, which showed a slight increase in the number of factories. But apart from the fact that the methodology is not the same as that of L'Usine Nouvelle (it takes into account in particular closures at the time when the activity actually stops), it stops in the first half of the year, before the fall of autumn.
Reindustrialization does not come down to simple arithmetic between factory openings and closures. But among the new factories identified, ten mobilized less than three million euros of investment in total, whether to produce small planes from Elixir Aircraft near La Rochelle or the production of rolling shutters from the start-up. French section in Vendée. More generally, the support in recent years for industrial start-ups, in particular via the “First factories” call for projects launched by Bpifrance, has enabled these young companies to set up their own production sites. Enough to contribute to the necessary renewal of the productive fabric.
Beyond that, energy remains, as in previous years, the main driver of reindustrialization, whether nuclear, with the inauguration of the Orano nuclear fuel packaging production site at the port. of Cherbourg, or green technologies with the launch of production of the McPhy electrolyzer gigafactory in Belfort this summer and the production of solar panels by Reden.
9,800 jobs threatened in the industry
Conversely, as for several years, automotive equipment suppliers remain the first to be affected, along with paper and furniture manufacturers. But collective proceedings and closures have caught up with industrial companies of significant size. With so much risk of failure cascading down their subcontracting chain. In total, more than 9,800 direct jobs are threatened over the last eleven months, according to our count. In Cholet and Vannes, the closure of the two Michelin factories planned by 2026 should leave 1,200 employees behind. A few months earlier, ExxonMobil announced the cessation of chemical activities on its Port-Jérôme platform, which employed 670 employees. And the public authorities are struggling to find a satisfactory takeover solution for the chemist Vencorex and its 450 employees in Isère.
Nothing indicates a reversal of the trend. “The economy lived in a bubble after the pandemic. Corporate cash flow was plentiful. Until mid-2023, investment in France was on the same dynamic as in the United States”rewinds Anthony Morlet-Lavidalie, economist at Rexecode. It is now finished. The financial room for maneuver has disappeared. “Investment has dropped and companies are now cutting their recruitment expenses”remarks the economist again. In the third quarter, the industry workforce remained stable. But the number of declarations of hiring for more than a month has fallen by 7% since the start of the year, according to Urssaf.
A risk of postponing future factory projects
At the same time, “the prospects for requests are poorly oriented”put under pressure by competition from Chinese imports, points out the economist. Business morale in industry measured by INSEE reflects the uncertainties of industrialists. Since the start of the school year, he has been playing yo-yo. It regained 4 points in November, after falling in October, but remains below the long-term average. A volatility which risks maintaining a wait-and-see attitude among business leaders, as already indicated by the EY survey of foreign investors, and pushing the postponement of major investments, which will form the factories of tomorrow. Eramet and Stellantis have already thrown in the towel on their respective battery recycling projects, as has the plastics recycler Loop in Moselle. And others could follow.
