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Faced with a series of logistical difficulties in shipping the vehicles it produces, the Stellantis factory in Sochaux (Doubs) now stores some of these cars at the disused Lure-Malbouhans airfield in Haute-Saône.
Vehicle shipping difficulties had been accumulating for several weeks. Shortage of semi-trailer drivers in Europe, port congestion and “instability of rail transport” have led, according to indications from the management of Stellantis, to the complete saturation of the car parks of the factory in Sochaux. So much so that the car manufacturer is now forced to use the disused Lure-Malbouhans airfield to store some of its vehicles awaiting dispatch.
The Lure-Malbouhans aerodrome is located about forty kilometers from the Stellantis factory in Sochaux. With a surface area of 242 hectares, this former NATO standard site has been decommissioned since 1997. Since 2005, it has been the property of the Haute-Saône departmental council.
The former Lure Malbouhans airport in Haute-Saône. • © Google Maps
The management of the car manufacturer Stellantis, resulting from the merger of Peugeot (PSA) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in January 2021, announced that it had put in place “reinforced security” on the site, to monitor the cars which are offloaded there. “We are managing this situation on a day-to-day basis,” management added, “Teams are mobilized seven days a week to find the best solutions and improve distribution time.”
According to union sources, the vehicles are evacuated by trucks to the airfield. Between eight and ten trucks (each carrying 8 cars) would rotate to Lure-Malbouhans.
This decision to use the Lure-Malbouhans aerodrome follows an unprecedented saturation of the manufacturer’s storage car parks. “30 years that I’ve been in the box, I’ve never seen parking lots like that, filled with vehicles. Never.” confided Éric Peultier, FO-Stellantis Sochaux union representative, to our team on site, Emilien Diaz and Rémy Poirot, last Tuesday. The union representative explained that the parking spaces of the employees had even been mobilized to store the manufacturer’s vehicles. For the past few weeks, local dealers have been coming to pick up the cars they have bought themselves.
These exceptional measures were no longer sufficient to compensate for the difficulties encountered by the Sochaux site, a hub through which a large number of vehicles manufactured elsewhere by the large group pass, in particular in Rennes and Trnava in Slovakia.
More than 7,000 vehicles were awaiting dispatch on Tuesday 22 November. In question, an accumulation of logistical factors: while Stellantis is carrying out an overhaul of its vehicle dispatch system, the road transport sector is facing a shortage of drivers. At the same time, the manufacturer’s management explained that it had to manage “port congestion” and “rail transport instability”.
In addition, the Sochaux plant, which acquired a new assembly line at the beginning of the year, now produces 1,100 cars daily, and was ultimately aiming for a rate of 1,200 vehicles produced each day. These vehicles are all sold.
A reduction in the rate could however allow the site to reduce some of its storage problems: “The management saved by the lack of parts!” declared the FO Sochaux union on its Facebook page this Thursday, November 24. According to the union, the management announced this Tuesday morning, during an extraordinary CSE, that tomorrow, Friday November 25, would be non-worked on the assembly lines of the 3008 and 5008 cars. parts used on the rear lights of the 5008 would be involved. They require in particular semiconductors, a part of which the factory has already suffered from recurring shortages.
The shoeing, painting and “end of factory to evacuate cars” sectors will still work this Friday, November 25. A regular CSE is scheduled for Tuesday, November 29. According to the FO union, a new non-working day could be announced there.
With AFP