August 2010
Summary
Réalités industrielles
Creating jobs in the regions of France
Complete issue
This issue was coordinated
by Claude TRINK
This issue was coordinated
Editorial
By Pierre COUVEINHES
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
Introduction
By Claude TRINK
Ingénieur général des Mines, Commissaire à la réindustrialisation de la Picardie
Industry’s new financial tools and their application in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region
By François YOYOTTE
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation
Since the autumn of 2008, the recession has led the French government to design new tools for intervening in favor of the country’s productive sector, especially manufacturing. How are these tools appropriated and used at the regional level? Following a description of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region and its system of support for economic development, light is shed on the ways these new financial tools are being put to use.
The States-General of Industry, a catalyst for Lorraine
By Eric PIERRAT
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation de la Lorraine
In Lorraine, the States-General of Industry was warmly welcomed.
How Oise Department is coping with de-industrialization
By Claude TRINK
Ingénieur général des Mines, Commissaire à la réindustrialisation de la Picardie
Oise has been hit by plant closings. How is this department in Picardy coping with this loss of industry? Who are the stakeholders in local economic development? What means are being used? What part have the officials in charge of industrialization played?
The successful revitalization of Ille-et-Vilaine Department, western France
By Jacques GARAU
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation pour la Bretagne
The government commissioner for reindustrialization provides engineering services to firms and local authorities with the aim of preserving or creating jobs. Owing to his role as an interface between companies, labor unions, elected officials and the state, this commissioner is able to focus know-how on massive, concomitant interventions for the sake of making local industry more competitive.
Restructuring industry in the Arve Valley
By Gérard CASCINO
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation
The Arve Valley in the Alps is the center of the French nuts-and-bolt industry. The 2008 recession has brought its business model, based on a growing volume of production, under question. Demand has fallen, and will stay low. To rise above this situation means adopting a systemic approach with a wide range of actions for handling questions related to the business cycle (e.g., access to funds) and to structural issues, such as the diversification of products in the value chain, the need to develop an effective synergy between firms so as to move beyond individualism, and the redefinition of the classical relation between firms and subcontractors in terms of a “coopetition”.
The successful reconversion of a firm in Franche-Comté to wind power
By Gilles CASSOTTI
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation en Franche-Comté
After many an episode (successive buyouts, bankruptcy, etc.) Franc-Comtoise Industrie was taken over, on 19 February 2010, by Alizeo, a windmill manufacturer, with the aim of having it make the bases for installing wind turbines. This is a new challenge for the employees of this company in Lons-le-Saunier (Jura Department) as it becomes involved in the adventure of producing wind power fifty years after having acquired experience in nuclear power, chemistry and petrochemistry.
Restructuring the paper industry
By Pascal CLÉMENT
Commissaire à la réindustrialisation en Haute-Normandie
Jean-Jacques BORDES
Consultant du groupe SECAFI – ALPHA
and Dominique LACHENAL
Professeur à l’Institut polytechnique de Grenoble
The French paper industry undergoes, at times, major technological changes and encounters stiff competition worldwide. All this leads to restructuring French plants with the goal of improving their competitive edge and diversifying. Through the case of a paper plant belonging to Alizay, we catch sight of the opportunities opened by adopting a new “green chemistry” strategy for producing biofuels from wood fiber cellulose (a second-generation bioethanol technology) and making chemicals (viscose) from wood pulp. This strategic reorientation is fully compatible with maintaining or even developing the production of wood pulp. It represents a major outlet for the French forest industry.
Higher education and research, an issue in the economic battle being waged in the regions of France
By Daniel FIXARI and Frédérique PALLEZ
Professeurs à Mines ParisTech
“Revitalizing” a local area means both reacting immediately to a crisis by shutting down plants and boosting a redevelopment based on the local area’s assets so as to create jobs. We understand why revitalization must enter into a genuine strategy of territorial development in order to ensure its coherence and solidity. In today’s “knowledge economy”, the system of higher education and research is being assigned a role in reaching these objectives.
Platforms of innovation: A competitive edge for local areas
By Romain BEAUME
Ingénieur des Mines, Chef du Bureau « Politiques d’innovation et de technologie » à la Direction générale de la Compétitivité de l’Industrie et des Services (DGCIS) du ministère de l’Economie, de l’Industrie et de l’Emploi
and Vincent SUSPLUGAS
Chef du Bureau « Politique des pôles de compétitivité » à la Direction générale de la Compétitivité de l’Industrie et des Services (DGCIS) du ministère de l’Economie, de l’Industrie et de l’Emploi
The “platforms of innovation” are a major lever of competitiveness. They offer to members of a “competitive pole” (high-technology cluster) access to shared resources (equipment, personnel and services). These platforms are the first phase in establishing an ecosystem involving the three pillars of competitive poles: firms, research organizations and institutions of higher education.
Prospects of foreign investments in France
By Gilles LE BLANC
Professeur d’économie, Mines ParisTech
For local areas, investment trends are rightly considered to be a decisive factor in the prospects for economic growth and the creation (or preservation) of jobs. For firms, their efforts in terms of both material and immaterial investments are a necessary condition for improving efficiency in production, developing innovations, setting up operations abroad and winning new outlets — in short, for guaranteeing a durable competitive edge in the marketplace.
Nanoproducts: Applications and issues
By Ilarion PAVEL
Ingénieur en chef des Mines
We have entered the nanoera. More than 800 products are now on the market that have been manufactured by using nanotechnology: organic LED screens, tires containing nanoceramics, sun-tan lotions with nanoparticles of titanium, automobile paint that cannot be scratched, tennis rackets reinforced with carbon nanotubes… The number of products is constantly rising. According to some estimates, the global nanomarket will amount to more than one trillion dollars in 2015.