On BFM Business, the president of France Chimie, Frédéric Gauchet, confided that negotiations with EDF on industrial electricity prices were slipping, threatening significant parts of the activity.
Negotiations on electricity prices between EDF and manufacturers are not making progress, the chemical sector said on Monday, which assures that the prices proposed by the electrician compromise the competitiveness of companies compared to their American competitors and Asians. “We are unable to obtain prices from the electricity supplier that allow us to be competitive, neither in the short term nor in the long term,” declared the president of France Chimie, Frédéric Gauchet, on the air of BFM Business. According to Frédéric Gauchet, this is one of the main dangers weighing on the chemical industry, which warned last week of the potential loss of 15,000 jobs within three years, or 8% of some 200,000 direct jobs. of the sector.
While so-called electro-intensive industrialists have so far benefited from a preferential rate for access to nuclear electricity, known as Arenh, which will disappear at the end of 2025, negotiations are dragging on to define the conditions for post-Arenh and achieve the signing of long-term contracts.
“Today, we are not having satisfactory discussions, otherwise it would make the headlines,” Frédéric Gauchet reported on Monday, for whom this subject of energy prices is “very clearly the catalyst” for the “related” problems. to investment” among its members.
20% of electricity consumption
The chemical industry represents “30% of industrial gas consumption and 20% of electricity”, according to Frédéric Gauchet, who questions France’s advance in terms of decarbonization and electrification of its energy and prices higher than in other countries.
Frédéric Gauchet, president of France Chimie and CEO of Minafin – 21/10
The Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, put pressure on EDF on October 8, asking it to “make efforts” in the negotiations. A few days later, on October 13, he said he hoped for an outcome “in the coming weeks”.
Industrialists are invited to sign long-term contracts with EDF, based on the agreement between the State and the energy company on November 14, 2023. This agreement set an average price level estimated at around 70 euros per megawatt hour. (MWh) for nuclear electricity, from 2026 and for 15 years. This price is considered too high by certain manufacturers, particularly in chemistry or hydrogen.
A mediation mission on the subject was entrusted to the former president of ArcelorMittal France, Philippe Darmayan, and the former director of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), Julien Janes. Last week, they submitted their report to the Minister of Industry.
