RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On May 18, the French steel tube manufacturer Vallourec announced its intention to cut about 2,950 jobs worldwide, 320 of them in France, confronting the government with its first social plan since Élisabeth Borne took office as Prime Minister.
The group announced a reduction “of 2,400 jobs,” following mainly the closure of its facilities in Germany and the elimination “of about 550 jobs.”
In mid-November, after a long financial restructuring process, Vallourec announced the sale of its activities in Germany and the suspension of manufacturing in Europe of industrial pipes. It planned the transfer of part of its activities to Brazil.
According to the company’s CEO, Philippe Guillemot, the first layoffs should occur at the end of 2022 and extend “throughout 2023, particularly in Germany.”
“We are fatalists; we doubted it. It is the site’s closure pure and simple,” reacted Michaël Tison, a Saint-Saulve union delegate, at the plant’s exit where the announcement was made to the employees. “Vallourec had public money to make investments in Brazil and Chile, where they will build plants, and it is France that suffers the consequences,” he criticized.
The group realized €916 million (US$961 million) in turnover in the first quarter of 2022, up 30.5% from the same period in 2021, reducing its net loss to €35 million, down from €93 million based on the same period last year.