(AFP/JEFF PACHOUD)
Last week, the Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, asked EDF for “efforts” in the negotiations.
It’s slipping. Negotiations on electricity prices between EDF and manufacturers
do not move forward,
according to the chemicals sector this Monday, October 21. “We are unable to obtain rates from the electricity supplier that we
allow us to be competitive, neither in the short term nor in the long term”,
declared the president of France Chimie, Frédéric Gauchet, on BFM
Business.
According to him, it is
one of the main dangers
which weigh on the chemical industry, which warned last week of the potential loss of
15,000 jobs within three years,
or 8% of the approximately 200,000 direct jobs in the sector. While so-called electro-intensive industrialists have so far benefited from a preferential rate for access to nuclear electricity, says Arenh, which will disappear at the end of 2025, negotiations are dragging on for
define the conditions of the post-Arenh
and achieve the signing of long-term contracts.
A mediation mission entrusted to the former president of ArcelorMittal France
“Today,
we do not have satisfactory discussions,
otherwise it would make the headlines,” Frédéric Gauchet reported this Monday, for whom this subject of energy prices is
“very clearly the catalyst”
problems “related to investment” among its members. The chemical industry represents
“30% of industrial gas consumption and 20% of electricity”,
according to him, who questions
France’s advance
in terms of decarbonization and electrification of its energy and higher prices than in other countries.
The Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, put pressure on EDF on October 8,
asking him for “efforts”
as part of the negotiations. A few days later, on October 13, he said
hope for an outcome “in the coming weeks”.
Manufacturers are invited to sign
long-term contracts with EDF,
on the basis of the agreement entered into between the State and the energy company on November 14, 2023. This agreement set an average price level
estimated 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 to the former director of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), Julien Janes. Last week, they submitted their report to the Minister of Industry.
