The unspoken are sometimes more telling than the speeches. The PSA group officially announced on Monday the next resumption – and partial – of its activities in France, in particular on its sites of Hordain, in Hauts-de-France, Trémery, in Lorraine, and Mulhouse.
“Since the closure of the Mulhouse site, we have implemented a reinforced health protocol with the support of our health service and in close collaboration with our social partners. Thanks to this collective effort, validated by audits that took place in April, we can calmly resume manufacturing in certain sectors. The forge, the foundry, the tools, the mechanical factory and the stamping will thus resume from May 11 in a progressive and secure manner with voluntary employees in order to produce parts for ground connection, braking, gearbox, engine and structural parts ”, welcomed this Monday the director of the pole of Mulhouse, Thierry Robert.
“This smooth start will make it possible to verify the proper implementation of employee security protocols, in particular the use of voluntary employees. Nobody should come to work with the ball in the belly, “abounds Laurent Gautherat, responsible for the CFE-CGC of the Mulhouse site and secretary of the central Social and Economic Committee of PSA.
What about car production factories?
If this recovery occurs first in the mechanical and crude factories, it is because these sites, which employ approximately 2,000 of the 5,000 employees of PSA in Mulhouse, produce parts for all European sites – or even beyond – from the automaker.
As for the terminal factories that produce vehicles, PSA announced on Monday a next restart of some sites outside of France but none of the main factories in France. “The resumption of vehicle production will depend on the strength of commercial activity when the dealerships reopen,” said industrial director Yann Vincent. The prudence of PSA, which has a comfortable order book – several hundred thousand vehicles worldwide – is understandable. No company has an interest in producing vehicles in a market that no one knows about. Dealers may reopen next Monday, it is unlikely that customers will scramble to buy vehicles given the economic uncertainties created by the health crisis.
A risk of sluggish automotive market on the high-end
An aggravating phenomenon for the Mulhouse site, the terminal plant produces two high-end vehicles, the Peugeot 508 sedan and station wagon, and the DS7 Crossback. However, it is premium vehicles, whose prices are higher than € 40,000, which are likely to suffer the most from the economic crisis that is looming. “For Mulhouse, we will see in time,” simply commented this Monday the industrial director of PSA, asked about the fact that Rennes and especially Mulhouse could, because of their production of medium and high-end vehicles, be the last factories French to restart. “As with Sochaux, we are working on different scenarios,” remarked Yann Vincent.
While 2020 promises to be a hollow year since the production of the 2008 stopped in autumn 2019, only replaced in mid-2021 by the arrival of the new 308, the Covid-19 crisis could therefore very strongly impact the Mulhouse site, especially in terms of jobs. “We may well be the last to resume and, if production restarts before the summer, it will probably be with only one team”, predicts Laurent Gautherat who does not forget that the main markets of PSA are France, the ‘Italy and Spain.
“Due to job uncertainties, workers may postpone or cancel the purchase they were considering. In businesses, due to the deterioration in cash flow, purchases of fleets or liberal professions should experience the same effects. This could reduce sales of high-end cars in the next few months, ”predicted an automotive analyst.
The situation of PSA Mulhouse, which was expected to be complicated in 2020, is darkening a little more with the effect of the Covid-19.
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