STX France: Montebourg for a “nationalization, perhaps temporary” – The Point

Arnaud Montebourg, the former minister of productive Recovery and a candidate in the primary organized by the PS, pleaded Sunday for “the nationalization, perhaps temporary, of STX” in order to “build the alliance by force” with the Italian Fincantieri.

Asked about the case of the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire (2.600 employees), Mr Montebourg replied on BFMTV that “the State should build the alliance with Fincantieri, shipyards italians”. “The Italians are Europeans, so we can still find points of conciliation” but “they are competitors, so we must ensure we defend our interests”, he observed.

“I am in favour of the rise in the capital, until the nationalization, up to 51%, whether through the agency of the interests of the State or by the intermediary of DCNS, which is a public company,” he said.

And to assert that “it is worth the effort,” because “we are the world leaders in the manufacture of cruise ships, we have ten years of backlog in Saint-Nazaire, thousands of jobs are in question”.

“And I ask the government to proceed with the nationalization, perhaps temporary, of STX, so as to build the alliance in full force with our friends from the Italian Fincantieri”, has launched the one who had not had gain of cause on its proposal for temporary nationalisation in 2012 of the site steel mosellan de Florange.

On the move Wednesday in Saint-Nazaire, the secretary of State for Industry, Christophe Sirugue, explained to the trade union organizations at the “five priorities” of the government in this folder: maintenance of the activity in Saint-Nazaire, the safeguarding of the network of sub-contracting, lack of transfer of orders on the sites of the shipbuilder, Italian, entrance to the capital of the French industrial DCNS and preservation of industrial property.

Fincantieri is the only candidate to have filed an offer to take over the subsidiary flourishing of south Korean group STX Offshore and Shipbuliding, which accumulates, for its part, the financial difficulties.

The shipbuilder, Italian, based in Trieste, and with nearly 19,000 employees, has been selected to engage in discussions of recovery of STX France by the commercial court of the central district of Seoul, charged with examining the procedure of receivership, the south Korean group.

The trade unions of STX in Saint-Nazaire, said Thursday little reassured, in particular on employment, by the guarantees requested by the State to the Italian in the negotiations on the redemption.

08/01/2017 17:50:28 – Paris (AFP) – © 2017 AFP