The exclusive report from L’Usine Nouvelle confirms this reversal of trend. Between January 1 and June 24, the number of factory closures exceeded the number of new industrial site openings, for the first time since the pandemic. To establish this assessment, we rely on information collected by journalists from the editorial staff and our network of correspondents present in all regions. It does not claim to be exhaustive, since only the most significant investments in new production sites, R&D centers or data centers are taken into account, leaving aside investments below one million euros.
Since the start of 2024, the number of sites threatened with closure has increased. According to our report which covers almost the entire first half, 37 factories have been the subject of an announcement of closure or are threatened after their placement in receivership or judicial liquidation. At least some of them should find buyers in the coming months, even if no offer had yet been validated when we stopped the counters. Without predicting these possible resumptions, this represents an increase of more than 50% compared to the 23 threats of closures counted at the same period in 2023.
© The New Factory
23 openings of industrial sites
At the same time, new factories continue to be set up, but at a slightly slower pace than last year. In mid-June, L’Usine Nouvelle listed 23 industrial site openings since the start of the year, compared to 27 at the same period last year. To this should be added 24 production capacity expansions, a figure which this time has not changed compared to last year.
© The New Factory
For several months, reindustrialization has continued, but its momentum has seriously slowed down, despite the supply-side policy put in place by the government and the measures to accelerate the establishment of factories and facilitate their financing, in particular through France 2030. The slowdown is partly cyclical. “We are experiencing a catch-up phase after Covid: businesses that we supported during the pandemic are now facing difficulties», recognized the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure in an interview with Usine Nouvelle, a few days before the dissolution. Since the start of the year, insolvencies have exceeded the symbolic bar of 60,000 companies over twelve months, with a sharp acceleration in the number of SMEs with more than 50 employees in collective proceedings, as noted by the Altarès firm.
A risk of postponement of future industrial projects
Like Duralex and Ascometal, the gradual end of “whatever it takes” and the lack of recovery in final demand have completed the draining of the cash flow of companies weakened by the surge in oil prices. energy in 2022 and 2023 and for some already in a precarious financial situation for a long time. Other announcements refer to more structural difficulties in certain sectors, in particular the automobile sector facing the rapid switch to electric motors. Bosch has announced the closure of its Savoyard factory, while the aluminum rim manufacturer Impériales Wheels and the stamper Magnetto Automotive France have been placed in liquidation. These difficulties also apply to chemistry, with the permanent shutdown of the Exxon steam cracker in Port-Jérôme (Seine-Maritime) which leads to the elimination of 677 jobs.
Conversely, the new factories opening their doors in France remain driven by a multitude of sectors, from the relocation of surgical gloves by the Canadian group Manikheir to a new factory in Sarthe to the establishment of a production site of 120,000 bicycles in Vendée eventually by Arcade Cycles. The rise of investments in green technologies, favored in particular by the green industry law, is also reflected concretely in the territories: near Bordeaux, Hydrogène de France opened the doors of its fuel cell factory, installed on the former Ford site in Blanquefort. McPhy has started the production of electrolysers for the production of hydrogen in its new gigafactory in Belfort.
But the trend towards a slowdown in the establishment of new sites could increase in the coming months. The rise in interest rates has already been weighing on business investments for several semesters, pushing companies to review their projects. The context of uncertainty at the political level, opened up by the dissolution of the National Assembly, could further contribute to some delaying their projects. “When a boss no longer has confidence in the government, he does not demonstrate in the streets, he stops investing. Everything is paused, it’s dramatic”, summarizes a business manager. At the risk of actually stopping reindustrialization.
