Ilham Kadri is the general director of Syensqo, a large Belgian chemicals company which has 13,000 employees worldwide, including 2,000 in France.
His job is cutting-edge chemistry that we find in medicines, in hydrogen, in the batteries of electric cars. However, Donald Trump reaffirmed, Tuesday January 21, his intention to tax all products from Europe.
franceinfo : First topical question for you who have run a business in the United States in the past, Donald Trump in power, is it good for your business or not?
Ilham Kadri: In any case, we are listening to the American road map. The markets reacted well, both in the United States and globally. And frankly, no surprise because everything that has been said so far is being implemented.
Donald Trump yesterday reaffirmed his intention to tax all products from Europe. However, you work a lot with the United States. Will it be possible tomorrow?
I will talk first about the chemical industry. It is still the second largest chemical sales region in the world after China. So there is still a commercial transactional relationship between Europe and the United States. Donald Trump is talking about putting tariffs and we will see what will be carried out, because we know that President Trump also likes to negotiate a lot. But indeed, it will impact a lot of commercial relationships.
We produce directly, whether in the United States for the United States, in China for China and in Europe for Europe. So we will be less impacted on production and finished products. Probably on raw materials, because our value chains are a bit complicated and people buy from other parts of the world. So, we are in the process of doing this study – it is almost complete – and we will adapt.
“It will create discomfort, especially in the short term. Afterwards, there will be negotiations.”
Ilham Kadri, general director of Syensqo.at franceinfo
I don't know what the Trump administration is going to ask of the Europeans. We know what he is going to ask of the Mexicans and the Canadians, but we do not know what he is going to ask of the Europeans, there are a lot of hypotheses. But in any case, for the chemical industry, it is a chemistry that can be global, but it is also very local, especially in specialty professions.
Did you anticipate the fact that the barriers would close by deciding to produce more and more locally in the United States?
No, we are not that visionary. What happens in the industry is that there are products that travel well and products that travel less well. When we make batteries for example, we have localized products for the battery, that does not mean that there are not exports between our factory in Franche-Comté, in France, and the United States. So that will still be impacted. And we need to do a whole study on the value chain because it impacts customers.
Is it the customer who pays?
And yes, it is the customer and ultimately it is the consumer who pays when there is a price increase. So the impact on inflation needs to be studied and seen.
So you are doing a global study to see what the impacts of Trump's policies will be.
-Quite. This is not new. Here, Davos is Mecca, the place of globalization for several seasons. It's now been one or two seasons after the pandemic that we've been talking about global fragmentation: China, Europe and Russian gas, the United States with the upcoming elections, AI… So we were starting already talking about it. There, in Davos, that's all we talk about. We talk about it a lot at breakfasts, that is to say the impact of the Trump administration on the global economy and the industry.
The last point that directly concerns you among Donald Trump's announcements is the fact that he was going to put the brakes on sales of electric cars. You manufacture a component for electric cars and you announced the construction of a very large factory in Georgia. Is this project being called into question?
It was recently published that we had delayed the start of this plant and it was in the second quarter. We wanted to wait to see what will happen with government assistance around renewable energies.
You actually had help.
Yes, huge, 30% of our investment cost was covered by the IRA like many other manufacturers, like our clients. But the suspension was not just to wait for the elections. We did it because our customers were delaying investments in electricity. We don't invest if there is no demand. So we delayed that and we did well.
I believe in electricity. If you look at the growth rate in the last five, seven years, it's about 50%. Now, we are talking about an overall growth of more than 20%. This is still double-digit growth. It's better than many other markets. In the United States, now Trump is telling us “drill, drill”, so it's really very gas, very oil. Let's wait and see. Let's also wait to see what Elon Musk, who is still a pillar in the Trump administration, will also do. Because Tesla is one of our major indirect customers.
The chemicals sector is doing poorly in Europe and France with ongoing restructuring. There are the Germans, but also in France with Vencorex, Arkema. You yourself at Syensqo are considering 122 job cuts in France, more than 300 worldwide, can you not do otherwise today?
The chemical industry is indeed doing badly, but I would say the industry in general, in Europe. Last year, in February, we brought together 73 industry bosses in Antwerp, with Mrs Ursula von der Leyen. But the 73 of us have become 1,200. Including the unions, including trades in the metallurgy. Small and medium-sized businesses have joined us to defend ten reporting points that revolve around competitiveness.
Today, Europe lacks competitiveness and I was very happy to listen to the President yesterday in her speech here in Davos. We asked several things. First, there is regulatory simplification. To give you an idea, since I arrived in Europe in 2019, we have produced 14,000 pages of regulations for chemistry alone.
“In Europe, this bureaucracy, these layers of regulations are killing the industry.”
Ilham Kadri, general director of Syensqo.at franceinfo
Small and medium-sized businesses, which are the important part of European industry, are suffering. There have been site closures representing more than 11 million tonnes of capacity, which is approximately 4% of European capacity, between 2023 and 2024. Chemistry is leaving. Europe must stop talking about an ambition “to be”; we need an ambition to “do”.
We want action because everything has been said, everything is justified, etc. And I think there is a convergence today. And the arrival of the Trump administration is a good blow that will shake the Europeans and it is the moment for leadership.
