Should Faurecia’s Allenjoie plant prepare for a few months of underactivity? The production of hydrogen tanks which was to gradually replace the manufacture of exhausts could start later than planned, according to the CGT. Not before 2024, instead of 2023. And with a falling rate, again according to the CGT: 20,000 tanks per year at best instead of the 50,000 initially planned with this lost market with Stellantis.
Faurecia has indeed just losing the market for a Stellantis utility. He puts all his hopes on another market, with the Renault group this time. Answer by this summer.
The Allenjoie plant, which cost €40 million for 22,000 m2, was built specifically for this manufacture of hydrogen tanks, developed at Faurecia’s global center of expertise in Bavans (a few kilometers from Allenjoie). A first production line is already in place. The factory employs nearly 250 people.
“The manufacture of exhaust systems is doomed to withdraw from the new Allenjoie plant to make room for the production of hydrogen tanks. Losing this very first market with Stellantis is a very bad sign” explains Pascal Vadam, CGT delegate at Faurecia Clean Mobility. “Because the Allenjoie plant was built especially for this hydrogen activity. Hence this concern shared by all employees.
The CGT poses the question of the public aid which participated in the financing of this new factory, in particular via the mixed economy company Pays de Montbéliard Immobilier d’Entreprise, which carried out the project. “The Allenjoie plant has benefited from significant public aid. The employees and taxpayers that we are, we wonder about the guarantees required in return for the activity”, adds Pascal Vadam.
A union source from Faurecia Bavans tempers this concern. She says she understands the fears of the CGT, but believes that we should not panic. “The hydrogen sector is booming. Nothing is lost. Other markets remain possible for the Allenjoie plant”.