At a time when announcements of plant closures by Michelin and store closures by Auchan struck a chord at the beginning of the week, the government is keen to show that the situation is not so negative in terms of the environment. reindustrialization. This Thursday, three ministers – Antoine Armand (Economy and Finance), Catherine Vautrin (Territories and Decentralization) and François Durovray (Transport) – are visiting Le Havre to announce three new plant projects.

Luxembourg-based Livista is planning to build a refinery to produce lithium for batteries used in electric vehicles. The project represents an investment of 1.2 billion euros and 300 jobs. American company Air Products is building a platform to import renewable hydrogen. This is part of the partnership announced last July between the American group and TotalEnergies. Under the terms of the agreement, Air Products will supply the French group with 70,000 tonnes of green hydrogen every year for 15 years, starting in 2030. The infrastructure will cost €1.1 billion to build, and will employ 270 people. Finally, France’s Qair will build a plant to produce and store hydrogen and methanol-based e-fuels. The project is worth 500 million euros and will directly employ 150 people.

Turnkey sites

These projects will be located in the autonomous port of Le Havre. They are part of the so-called “turnkey sites”, where the State takes charge of a certain number of administrative procedures and environmental authorizations on behalf of companies, in order to make land available more quickly. These sites are often located in the ports of Dunkirk, Marseille-Fos and Le Havre. This is once again the case.

These plants and facilities are due to come on stream between 2028 and 2029. They allow the government to show that projects are not blocked, while industrialists wonder about the sustainability of reindustrialization, particularly at a time when parliamentarians are using their creativity to multiply taxes and tax increases.

Plants still being created in France

In fact, the new barometer of factory creations, drawn up by the Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE), shows that France is still creating more factories than it is closing. Unveiled by the daily Les Echosfor the first six months of the year, “a moderate increase in industrial site openings and expansions, with 36 net openings”.states the DGE. However, if we exclude extensions and only include new site openings, the balance is slightly negative, at -8 sites. Above all, the figures show a marked slowdown compared with those for 2022 and 2023, when net creations/extensions reached +176 and +189 respectively. The slowdown is therefore significant. But the balance remains positive…