A car wreck abandoned April 2, 2003 north of Ajaccio in Corsica (AFP / File / Olivier Laban-Mattei )
Deformed by shocks or partially burned, these cars stretching out of sight no longer, to the layman, that bunch of useless junk. Others see instead a vein underexploited.
“Our raw material is the vehicle,” told AFP Emmanuel Ducrocq, commercial director of automobile demolition companies, whose one of the branches located in Saint-Quentin (Aisne) has hundreds of cars lined up on the park.
Damaged or irretrievably broken down, the end of life vehicles result in companies like Mr. Ducrocq. In 2014, about one million vehicles have definitively left the French roads.
Far from the image of old breaks, wrecks labyrinth bathed in dirty puddles, he flatters Ducrocq the order prevailing in its premises, an economic imperative as well as ecologically.
Cars demolition, approved by the state and often certified by control bodies must meet a specification the more accurate that new rules apply to the entire sector since 1 January.
A European Directive indeed requires that at least 85% of the weight of a vehicle out of use now is “recycled” or “recycled”. In the latter case, it means sort the materials composing an automobile (metals, rubber, plastics, glass …) to turn them back into raw material or new products such as carpets.
The directive also admits that up to 10% of the weight of the vehicle is “valued” for example by serving as fuel in cement plants. Only 5% of the maximum vehicle are destined for landfills.
Jean-Pierre Labonne, CEO of Caréco, a cooperative that owns more than 10% of the French market for used auto parts These new rules are likely to finally take off even confidential sector
-. 30% of the new price –
“The used part represents only 2% of the detached replacement part, “he said, seeing a” huge potential “of development in a general economic context for cheap solutions.
After an accident or serious mechanical breakdown, an expert appointed by the insurance must determine if a car is economically repairable, ie that the costs does not exceed the value of the vehicle.
However, the new parts are very expensive. “A bumper worth between 800 and 900 euros, it’s a fortune. On occasion, it’s worth between 200 and 300 euros,” according to Labonne. On average, a body part or mechanically recovered from a wreck sells 30% of the new price, and the amount saved can often save a car that would have ended the case.
Insurers play growing the game, according to Labonne because “they have the problems of all industrial groups: a market worsens, customers who have less means”
As for. garages and body shops, possibly reluctant to go a cheaper product, “they know now they still make a profit and will charge for labor.”
Caréco, which brings together some 90 centers in France, including those of Mr. Ducrocq, warrants its parts for one year, in order to reassure customers who would hesitate to use this solution.
In 2015, the cooperative wants to lead a project to scale: a national database of parts available from its members, accessible on the Internet, with millions of references. Of the hundreds of meters of shelves in the warehouse of Mr. Ducrocq, each alternator, starter, headlight or mirror is already adorned with a detailed label with bar code.
Paradox, the number of end of life vehicles tends to decrease, which could pose a supply problem in the industry. In two years, Mr. Ducrocq was a 40% drop in arrivals of vehicles in parks. “With the crisis, people drive less, the repression that they run slower, and there are far fewer accidents,” he said.
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