PHOTOS: In Châteauroux, an industrial juggernaut takes up residence in the new Ozans activity zone

A huge building still under construction stands in the middle of the fields where a swarm of construction equipment is still busy. After a complicated start This Development Zone located between Etréchet and Châteauroux welcomes a behemoth of the industrial sector. It will join the 130 factories of SOPREMA STEEL, which manufactures waterproofing and metal carpentry materials. The group invested 14 million euros to build this sitealso using its own products, notably metal profiles of a new type (in fact metal beams that are more economical in raw materials). The building came out of the ground in a very short time thanks to the “turnkey sites France 2030” plan. A very promising starting signal for the Ozans Development Zone, after a first unsuccessful project with a Chinese company.

Soprema Steel, an industrial juggernaut at the gates of Châteauroux

Build a 6,300 m² building in 14 months is a feat if we take into account all the work and preparatory studies, actually carried out in record time. “Everything was ready. It was extraordinarily quick. In a year, I have rarely seen this anywhere” appreciates the CEO of the Strasbourg group, Pierre-Etienne Bindschedler. The Ozans area has therefore fully benefited, like 55 other sites selected in the country from the plan “turnkey sites“. At the end of the sale, a commitment was therefore made in September 2023 between the CEO and the metropolis, whose president Gil Avérous, also Minister of Sports, took up his cap for the occasion. He explains that “many mandatory regulatory procedures such as the water law, archaeological studies and 4 seasons studies have been anticipated. All that remained was the instruction and administrative authorization before starting the work.“. This work was also carried out with “in-house” production, particularly profiles, that is to say metal beams developed by Soprema.

With more than 12,000 employees worldwide, and 4,200 in France, Soprema Steel achieves 5 billion euros in turnover per year. In Ozans, it will install a so-called “cold” profiling unit. These steel profiles require 15% less raw materialwhich will result in a lower carbon impact on the 5,000 tonnes of steel planned as annual production. The CEO of Soprema explains this innovation which allows “to consume much less metal. So if we consume less metal, that contributes to sobriety. We produce the same quality with fewer materials. And then it allows you to decarbonize, that is to say when you make a structural element, if humans consume less raw material, they will necessarily consume less money.“. Without declaring victory too early, the group has still acquired enough land, i.e. 11.5 hectares, to develop further and build possible extensions.

For the service companies, the turnkey site made it possible to anticipate certain technical stages to a large extent. Example with the dalagists. The company Placeo (from neighboring Tours) will use cutting-edge technology so that the floors can withstand the very heavy demands of steel production. Franck Paris, director of the Placéo agency, therefore saved time. “It's easier for us because it allows us to know the specifications and provide the right technical solutions. Turnkey, we are directly with the project owner and we can answer their real questions“. The construction site should create 15 specialized jobs for this Ozans site.

Very technical work

An imposing machine 120 meters long will produce these “metal profiles”, and it will be housed in a building the size of several football fields. It is easy to measure whether the plant is perfectly adapted. Let's stay for a moment on the importance of soils. Etienne Martin of theThe Placéo company is responsible for casting this slab, and making it last over time according to very strict and very technical standards... “As much as a structural bolt up there is not going to bother anyone, if you have a crack in the ground, it could hinder production“. So obviously, “iThe slab must be more than just a hair's breadth”. Placéo also provides a technical solution with products that reinforce the hardness of the floor.

But the ground itself must have been the subject of work well in advance. there this soundt the local Setec teams who carried out the excavation work and then leveling the soil. Jean-Christophe is an Earthworker, he and his colleagues have been working in the area for months. “We are taking advantage of this to make the buried networks and then we will make the borders, the platform and even the road. It will have to be finished at the end of the year.” Christian Bodin, his boss, (and also director of the Indre attractiveness agency) is delighted that a local company is participating in such a project. “It's not just the concrete floor that must be load-bearing, it's the whole thing. We traced underneath, we brought back rock, we widened access for this company. The most important thing is what's underneath.”

The promises of the Ozans development zone

Gil Avérous recalls that “he there was a first building which is the site with the Innovation and Technology Center which had been set up by Chinese partners and which has not yet found its buyer“. However the Soprema factory “It's really the first relatively large industrial production building, because when you're inside, you realize the length of the building. This is not the last since we have other projects that will emerge around the company. DCB which is there and which will build a large logistics building just opposite on the plot. So this is the real start.” For this inauguration the mayor of Châteauroux symbolically tightened a few bolts between two pieces of demonstration beams. An original way of cutting the traditional ribbon. These metal beams do not need welding.“Just tighten the bolts“, says the mayor, president of the metropolis and current minister of sports, slipping in a little word of humor about current events. “the Prime Minister asks us every day to tighten the screws“, in reference to the difficult budgetary debates of the Barnier government.

Three other operations are about to see the light of day within a few months. “We're already anticipating what's next.“continues the mayor of Châteauroux.”If you saw it when leaving the building, we are in the process of redoing the road which was calibrated for a transit passage between the village and the forum area which we are really going to dimension to be able to accommodate heavy goods vehicles. So we are already imagining the continuation of the implementations which are starting.“

The Sopréma Steel plant will be fully operational in the first half of 2025.