Promised sworn. Proponents of a Renault-Fiat Chrysler merging ensure: the operation will not destroy jobs, on the contrary, it will allow both groups to strengthen, by constituting a European champion in the face of Chinese or American competition. In its proposal, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) undertakes not to close the factory: the leaders of both groups know that the French and Italian governments will only bless the operation at this price.
The French state holds 15% of Renault, but the Italian state is not present at FCA’s round table.
Use rate
The stakes are high for both groups. Renault still has 48,600 employees in France, in 12 industrial sites including 6 vehicle assembly plants. Similarly, with 27 sites in Italy, including four assembly sites, FCA is still a major employer in the country with around 60,000 employees.
“Globally in Europe, there is not a lot of overcapacity, because we are still in high gear,” says Bernard Jullien, lecturer at the University of Bordeaux. “But in the event of a severe reversal, the leaders will have good luck to explain that a closure is necessary. In addition, it is always possible to drastically reduce production. According to LMC Automotive, the utilization rate of European plants is close to 70% for Renault and below 60% for FCA.
Decrease in production
FCA’s position seems more fragile. Its Italian factories, including the Fiat 500X, the Jeep Renegade, the Fiat Punto (in Melfi in the south of the country), as well as the Fiat Panda (in Pomigliano near Naples), the Maserati and the Alfa Romeo, have suffered partial unemployment in 2018. Because the production of FCA in the country fell by 10% according to the union Fim-Cisl. In January, he expected a further decline this year. And this, even if an investment of 5 billion euros was announced for Italian factories in November, to locate, among others, the electric Fiat 500 in Melfi.
At Renault, the factories of Flins and Douai are experiencing a slowdown, but it should only be temporary, trade unionists hope. Flins suffers from decline in sales of the Nissan Micra (-30% over the year ended March 2019), but hopes to compensate with the sales of the Zoe, his small electric car (+ 38% over the first 4 months of the year). Similarly, the Douai plant, which is currently producing slower vehicles (Space, Talisman and Scenic), is expected to host from 2021 the future electric vehicles of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. .