The northern region has been chosen by automotive capitalists to become
France's "battery valley," a pompous reference to San Francisco's
Silicon Valley, minus the mountains and heat! Specifically, five
gigafactories are being established in this region, which is already a
hub for the automotive industry, an industry that emerged after the
closure of the mines. Today, more than 285,000 jobs depend on this
sector, and the bosses are not mistaken: there is a large labor pool, an
ambient paternalism that "streamlines" social relations, and a territory
that is developed and developable according to the whims of economic
interests. A final advantage is the port of Dunkirk, which provides a
supply of raw materials extracted from all over the world. The
employment promises are significant: 20,000 jobs by 2030, enough to
silence all political opposition. Neither the Greens-Insoumis nor the
environmental or ecological associations are stepping up to the plate,
yet these gigafactories and their constellation of subcontracting
companies will have a lasting impact on the region, its population, and
the relationship between capital and labor.
Five gigafactories
This term would be a neologism invented by Elon Musk, the electric car
magnate-maniac who, in 2017, was the first to install the world's
largest factory (700 ha!) in the state of Nevada in the United States,
to build batteries (manufactured by Panasonic) and assemble the famous
Tesla. A gigafactory, in addition to its giga-dimensions, is also
defined as a factory capable of producing batteries to store a minimum
of 1 GW/h of electrical energy. Lagging behind the USA and China,
European car manufacturers are creating their own structures and the
North of France is designated as the reference space for the battery.
Currently, two gigafactories are in operation in Douai (59) and
Douvrin/Billy Berclau (62), two will normally open before the end of the
year in Boves (80) near Amiens and Dunkirk (59), finally a last one is
still in the planning stages in Dunkirk. Here is a quick overview of
these companies, the promises made in terms of jobs and production, the
huge investments, a large part of which comes from the State and its
communities - as good managers of capital that they are:
1) The first gigafactory opens in May 2023 in Douvrin on an industrial
zone that previously housed Française de Mécanique, a factory that
manufactured engines for Peugeot and Renault and which has since
relocated to Eastern Europe. Its inauguration brings together the
political and economic elite who hope to make their money from the
battery economy. Bruno Lemaire, Minister of the Economy at the time,
speaks of the "Airbus of the battery" because the project is European,
while Xavier Bertrand, the head of the region, declares: "Here, we are
making the future, we are making confidence, we are making optimism.
This is the real challenge of this factory, it is the real challenge of
the economic and industrial transformation of our region." On the
bosses' side, Carlos Tavares, the new former boss of Stellantis - who is
leaving with a golden parachute of 35 million euros - takes pictures
with the heads of Opel, Mercedes-Benz, and Total. Indeed, the factory
belongs to the ACC group - Automotive Cells Company - which is a French
joint venture created in 2020 by PSA which will become Stellantis, Total
via SAFT (Société d'Accumulateurs Fixes et de Traction - see article on
battery capitalism) and Opel. Since 2021, Mercedes-Benz has been
participating in the capital. 2,000 jobs are promised by 2030 and the
production target is set at 500,000 vehicles/year. The production
capacity is divided into three separate tranches, each capable of
storing 8 GW/h of electricity. 5 billion euros were spent to build this
giant factory (60,000 m² of workshops) which builds battery cells from a
mixture of rare metals NMCL (nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium). A
type of ink is manufactured and sprayed onto micrometer-sized sheets; no
dust is tolerated in the process, giving the workers a "NASA" look,
similar to the manufacturing of satellites or rockets. Of this EUR5
billion, EUR1.5 billion is public money, a nice windfall. And the region
has developed the surrounding area and is preparing the workforce by
opening a training center for battery trades right next door.
2) The second gigafactory opened last year, in 2024, and it is that of
the Renault group, in Douai, next to the Georges Besse assembly plant -
named after the boss at the time, killed by Action Directe. The diamond
brand is joining forces for the occasion with the Japanese group AESC
(Automotive Energy Supply Corporation), created in 2007 by Nissan and
Tokin Corporation, along with the Chinese company Envision, specialized
in wind and photovoltaic energy but also batteries to store the "green"
energy produced. The electric R5 and 4L must be manufactured because
Renault wants to play on the nostalgia of its old star cars to boost
sales. There will also be batteries for the Nissan Micra, the Alpine and
the E-Scenic, the latter being the only one assembled on site for the
moment. Assembly must also take place in another of the group's
factories in Maubeuge. Current battery production is planned to equip
700,000 vehicles per year, but for the moment the figures are more like
400,000. Six highly automated production lines are planned and should
eventually employ 950 people.
3) This year, the gigafactory of the French company Verkor, based in
Grenoble, is due to open in Dunkirk, more precisely in the neighboring
town of Bourbourg. It is to produce lithium-ion batteries. Capital of
more than 2 billion euros is being raised, with additional loans of 600
million euros granted by the European Investment Bank and approximately
650 million euros provided by the State as part of the France 2030 plan.
The Hauts-de-France region is contributing 60 million euros and the
urban community of Dunkirk 30 million euros. The batteries will
initially be intended for Renault group brands, but an expansion of
customers is already planned. As in Douvrin, there will be several
phases in this factory; for the moment, only the first is under
construction. The next two projects, planned for 2028 and 2030, are
currently under discussion, with the public inquiry currently being
conducted by the CNDP, the National Commission for Public Debate. The
projected cost of these two next projects is approximately EUR3.9
billion, 20% of which would come from public subsidies. For its part,
the Grand Port Maritime de Dunkerque (GPMD) is developing the
surrounding area to the tune of EUR31 million. In terms of jobs, 1,200
contracts are promised for each phase of the gigafactory, representing a
total of 3,600 employees.
4) The Tiamat gigafactory in Boves near Amiens is expected to open in
2026 with the promise of 1,700 jobs by 2030. Cock-a-doodle-doo! It's
another French company, but it specializes in sodium-ion batteries,
which are less efficient than lithium batteries, but which, according to
the official line, provide a "sovereign and eco-responsible" solution in
the battery world because they are made from sodium chloride, which is
found in sea salt or underground mines, which France has, particularly
in the east of the country. Research led by the CNRS is improving the
technology, particularly for rapid recharging, promised in 5 or 10
minutes. For the first production line, 25,000 batteries per day are
planned, but they will initially be intended for wind power,
photovoltaics, and data centers - the latter also being very
energy-intensive, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence,
which requires an average of 8 times more energy for research. The
budget amounts to 150 million euros, including 8 million in public
funding (region, Amiens metropolitan area, etc.).
5) The Prologium gigafactory in Dunkirk is still in the planning stages,
but it has just obtained environmental permits and a building permit.
It's a Taiwanese company that initially specialized in smartphone
batteries but is looking to stand out from the crowd thanks to its
ceramic-lithium technology, which has the serious advantage of not being
flammable and also being very light. Construction is expected to begin
in 2026, with production expected to start in 2028. The project promises
to create 3,000 jobs.
A worker at the Douvrin gigafactory
A whole ecosystem!
There's more to life than gigafactories, because building an electric
car requires a before and after in the manufacturing of batteries and
their "cells"-the basic accumulators that make up a battery. Before
that, there's the packaging of raw materials and the manufacturing of
basic elements like the anode, cathode, and electrolyte. At the base, we
find the famous rare earths or specific metals. They come from the most
filthy extractivism in the four corners of the planet: lithium from the
Andes, cobalt from the Congo, manganese from Gabon, and nickel from New
Caledonia, to name just a few of the main producers. This causes
thousands of deaths along the way due to the toxicity of the products or
armed conflicts around the mines, such as in the Congo (see a previous
Courant Alternatif report on extractivism). All these products arrive by
bulk carriers at the port of Dunkirk, which hosts several major names in
the mining sector in its industrial zone.
For the manufacture of cathodes, two factories belonging to the
XTC-Orano group are scheduled to open in 2026. Orano is the new name for
Areva, the French leader in nuclear power and uranium mining in Africa
and Central Asia. XTC New Energy is the Chinese leader in the export of
NMC metals (nickel, manganese, and cobalt). For the electrolyte, the
South Korean company Enchem is present in the Dunkirk ZIP. There are
still gaps in the upstream battery sector, such as in the manufacture of
anodes and separator films between battery cells. There is no shortage
of space at the port, and the GPMD and local authorities are doing
everything they can to attract other companies, but competition between
territories is fierce. Eastern France, another former region undergoing
reconversion, is also playing its cards right to attract capitalists.
The Bolloré group plans to build its gigafactory for "Blue Solutions"
batteries, known as 4th generation batteries with lithium and metal,
around Mulhouse.
Downstream of the gigafactories, there are assembly workshops.
Hauts-de-France is recognized as the leading automotive region in
France, with seven manufacturer sites (Renault, Stellantis, and Toyota)
and three mechanical assembly sites (engines, gearboxes, etc.). In
total, this makes 53 regional companies working for the sector. The
thorny issue of battery recycling remains. For now, five factories are
planned in the region: LiCycle in Harnes; two factories of the
Suez-Eramet group in Dunkirk, which are expected to open in 2025 and
2027; Mécaware in Béthune; and Battri in Saint-Laurent-Blangy near
Arras. A few words about Eramet, the major French mining group-one-third
of its capital is owned by the state. It mines Caledonian nickel,
Gabonese manganese, and the world's largest lithium deposit in
Centenario, Argentina. Of the 50,000 tons of materials that these two
companies will process each year, 90% of the nickel, cobalt, and lithium
will be recycled. 5,000 tons of these polluting materials will therefore
be rejected who knows where. More precisely, for the industrial
recycling process, the batteries are dismantled from the vehicles, then
they are completely crushed, and then there are several chemical and
mechanical processes to separate the different metals. At the end, we
obtain a "blackmass," which is a mixture of the most strategic metals:
nickel, cobalt, graphite, lithium in the form of black powder.
Everything is then refined to be reusable. All this reeks of Seveso
"high threshold" and pollution galore. For Battri near Arras, refining
is delegated to the Moroccan mining group Managem (shareholder of the
company), which will do this in Morocco for a return to Europe. Out of
sight, out of lungs...
Finally, electric cars require special motors, cast from a specific
steel called "electric" with special magnetic properties. To manufacture
it, ArcelorMittal Dunkerque, formerly Usinor, is one of the last blast
furnaces in France, along with those at Fos-sur-Mer. For electric
vehicles, the Indian steel giant is preparing to produce 200,000 tons
per year at its Mardyck site near Dunkirk. The plant is due to open a
new dedicated production line, named "Electryck" for the occasion-a
subtle play on the name of the town. The goal is to equip 2.5 million
motors, and to achieve this, it will need the following ingredients:
2,750 tons of acids, electricity equivalent to the annual consumption of
200,000 people, and millions of liters of water. Behind these colossal
needs and rejections, there are still promises of jobs that everyone
agrees on, with the unions at the forefront (see below). It must be said
that Arcelor-Mittal is in an unfavorable economic situation with chronic
overproduction that has led to the use of technical unemployment for
months. As we can see, the choice of the battery implies profound
transformations of work that must be taken into account to better
understand the period and hope to see hopes of conflict with capital and
class struggle.
A territory put at the service of gigafactories
This is the winning argument of the Hauts-de-France region and its
president, Xavier Bertrand! Come to the North, everything is ready for
your activities: the region and its infrastructure, the population, the
energy.
On one side, there is the old mining basin that had already been handed
over to the automobile industry in the 1960s. As a reminder, the last
coal mines closed at the turn of the 1990s but, just after the battle
for coal and the post-war reconstruction, activity was already in
decline and the political and economic bourgeoisies were preparing the
reconversion of the region. Nuclear energy, Algerian oil, gas from the
Pyrenees and especially the establishment of the ECSC (European Coal and
Steel Community, in 1951) made coal unprofitable. It was then that the
first automobile factories arrived: Française de Mécanique in 1969; a
Simca-Chrysler factory in Denain in 1969; Renault-Douai in 1970 until
the arrival of Toyota in Onnaing, near Valenciennes in 1998.
On the other side, there is the maritime plain of Dunkirk, a vast
polderized area which, after the war, welcomed the principle of
"water-based steelmaking," which consisted of the migration of blast
furnaces to the coast, closer to the arrivals by boat of raw materials:
coal, iron ore. In 1948, the Société des forges et aciéries du Nord et
de l'Est merged with the Société des forges et aciéries de Denain-Anzin
to form Usinor (the Steel Union of Northern France), today
ArcelorMittal. The Dunkirk blast furnaces were inaugurated in 1962 and
brought about a very strong increase in the population. The village of
Grande-Synthe grew from 900 to 25,000 inhabitants in a few years, as did
the other neighboring communes. Today, the GPMD (Grand Port Maritime de
Dunkerque), which extends over 17 km and 7,000 hectares, has 17 SEVESO
"high threshold" sites and is still expanding towards the west - the
east being blocked by the Belgian border!
Inauguration of the Douvrin gigafactory with great people: Lemaire,
Bertrand, Tavares, Pouyanne...
To this must be added the 6 nuclear reactors in Gravelines, which makes
it the largest power plant in France and even in Western Europe. In the
East, we are now all familiar with the other large power plant, the
Zaporija plant in Ukraine. In total, these 6 pressurized water reactors
produce 5,400 MW, or more than 60% of the electrical needs of the
Hauts-de-France region, particularly those of the large Dunkirk
industries, led by Aluminium Dunkerque, right next to the plant, which
needs to do catalysis, which is very energy-intensive. But the
gigafactories have even greater electricity needs, and the "battery
valley" package includes the construction of two EPRs in Gravelines. To
give you an idea, the Douvrin gigafactory consumes electrical energy
equivalent to a city of 800,000 inhabitants, or roughly one nuclear
reactor. For water, it's the equivalent of a city of 20,000 to 30,000
inhabitants. For greenwashing, there's also a wind farm being built off
the North Sea, which will supply 600 MW. This is still insufficient for
the new companies setting up in the region. Thus, the construction of a
very high voltage (VHT) line is planned from the Penly power plant
(Normandy), where two EPR reactors are also being built. When we're told
that batteries are an ecological solution to the environmental crisis,
we're forced to admit that we're being made fun of and that the headlong
rush continues. Not to mention the authoritarianism of such a choice,
the Transition they want to sell us seems radiant...
In terms of infrastructure and population, Hauts-de-France has been the
playground of industrial revolutions for 200 years. There are no
disturbing hills, the motorway network is substantial, thanks to its
position as a crossroads with the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the
Netherlands; there is also a network of important canals leading to the
major ports of the Northern Range (Rotterdam in particular), and a
future Seine-Nord canal is under construction. Socially, the region has
been irrigated by either Christian or socialist/communist paternalism.
The latter was particularly present in the mining basin before being
taken over by the far right, which is now capitalizing on the economic
and social crisis. This configuration explains the total absence of
opposition to these projects (see below). Finally, the Region is
committed to providing labor for the gigafactories by opening training
centers for battery trades, such as in Douvrin or Douai. In Dunkirk,
projects between the National Education system and the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry exist to disseminate the message to children and
encourage support and even future directions. The challenge now is to
make the Noooord desirable. The CUD (Dunkirk Urban Community), led by
Patrice Vergriete (former Minister of Transport in the Attal
government), and urban planning agencies are taking care of this,
notably the AGUR Flandre-Dunkirk, which is marketing the region
extensively to manufacturers and builders, as there will be a
significant need for housing. They are also inventing neologisms to make
this forced industrialization desirable: "industrial symbiosis,"
"circular economy," welcome to the wonderful world of Dunkirk... Culture
also serves to restore the image of a region that is sometimes gray and
rainy. Films such as the "Baron Noir" series and Christopher Nolan's
"Dunkirk" are shot in Dunkirk. There are concert halls and museums,
including the FRAC (regional contemporary art fund) located in the
port's former shipyards.
The giant BYD has acquired its own ship to increase its deliveries of
electric cars outside China.
Political consensus
As we said or implied above, the entire national and local political and
associative landscape sings the praises of the "battery valley."
Everyone agrees, from the right to the left, with the Greens and the
rebels leading the way. Thus, Green MEP Damien Carême, former mayor of
Grande-Synthe, fully supports the green industry: "As an
environmentalist, I am pleased that the EU has finally realized that the
transition to a net-zero carbon economy can both save the climate and
strengthen the EU's sovereignty while creating many green jobs." France
Insoumise also defends green productivism and the opening of new mines
in the region, such as the lithium mines in Allier and Alsace. In the
European Parliament, the rebels therefore support "secure and
sustainable access to raw materials and strategic metals such as rare
earths, essential for clean technologies and reindustrialization."
On the non-profit side, things are no better. Greenpeace and the Climate
Action Network are calling for the emergence of European batteries and
carbon neutrality by 2050. Finally, the unions applaud because the
promises of jobs are undeniable for them. We're talking about around
20,000 jobs. The CGT Arcelor is taking up the energy transition
narrative, which for their company leads to an investment of EUR850
million to "decarbonize" the blast furnaces (sic). It's a classic
job-defense stance. Arcelor is hiring a total of 3,000 people! But there
will surely be a restructuring to come, which will lead to unemployed
workers who will perhaps be directed toward gigafactories, if health
conditions permit. The last argument that could weigh heavily in the
choice of "connected capitalists" is the low probability of strikes at
the port of Dunkirk, unlike others like Le Havre or Marseille. Indeed,
the CGT is in the minority there; it is the CNTPA (National Coordination
of Port Workers and Related Workers) that holds the helm and is proud to
say, to anyone who will listen, that there has not been a dockers'
strike for over 30 years. But behind this alignment of the political
planets, there are the harsh laws of capitalism that somewhat obscure
the beautiful valley under construction.
Crossing the "Valley of Death"
This is the expression used by battery manufacturers to describe the
period. The sector already seems to be suffering from certain chronic
illnesses. First, there is a lack of demand because the sales of
electric vehicles are declining in France, due in particular to the end
of government subsidies such as the ecological conversion bonus, which
was sacrificed in the new 2025 budget. Thus, in Douvrin, the gigafactory
is only equipping 2,500 vehicles, which is "well below the objectives,"
in the boss's own words. The same is true in Douai, where production is
almost half of total capacity.
The automotive sector is also experiencing an overproduction crisis. In
ports like Calais, for example, thousands of imported vehicles are not
finding buyers. Finally, the car is an old thing on which it is
increasingly difficult to make added value. The electric car will have a
hard time breathing new life into this capitalism. The recent customs
duty increases made by Trump further weaken the market, which is highly
dependent on imports and exports from subcontractors working around the
world. Here again, serious clouds are hanging over the valley of the
battery that they want to sell us. By comparison, things are also gloomy
on the ArcelorMittal side (see above), and since mid-March, the site's
main blast furnace has been shut down for 3 months, initially... The
fault lies with competition from cheap Chinese steel, combined with
still-high energy prices in Europe. Already in the region, Arcelor is
scheduled to close two factories by spring, in Denain (Nord) and Reims
(Marne), with more than 130 jobs affected. It also plans to relocate
some of its support activities (order management, marketing, etc.) to
India, and a new steelworks for the group has been announced across the
Atlantic, in Alabama (Trump effect?).
As we can see, international competition is fierce, particularly with
the American Tesla and the Chinese BYD (see article, battery
capitalism). To face it, France, but especially the European Union, are
arming themselves to protect their market. As the general delegate of
ARIA, the regional association of the automotive industry (a lobby!),
says, "we want an open market but a fair playing field," especially
condemning China (forgetting the United States in passing) for heavily
subsidizing the battery sector to be the most profitable on the market.
Last March, the European Commission then proposed a massive support plan
for the automobile industry that is broken down on several levels: the
relaxation of CO2 emissions rules that were to lead to fines starting
this year for manufacturers who did not comply with the new standards,
they obtain an additional 2 years before the hypothetical fines;
encouraging companies to "green" their vehicle fleet knowing that
company cars represent 60% of new vehicle sales; EUR1 billion for
innovation to perfect batteries made in the EU; EUR500 million for the
installation of charging stations throughout the Community; and finally,
the most significant measure, an investment of EUR1.8 billion over two
years in the battery sector with the objective of reducing the price of
the battery from 40% to 20% of the total cost of the car. Will this be
enough to be competitive? Nothing is less certain, but like other
economic pillars, public authorities are ready to subsidize to keep
entire sectors on life support until the next crisis. In any case, the
battery will be made in the region, willingly or not, but at what price?
Because according to the principle of privatizing profits and
socializing losses, we will always be the losers, in addition to perhaps
being their workers.
Margat, April 2025
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4446
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
France's "battery valley," a pompous reference to San Francisco's
Silicon Valley, minus the mountains and heat! Specifically, five
gigafactories are being established in this region, which is already a
hub for the automotive industry, an industry that emerged after the
closure of the mines. Today, more than 285,000 jobs depend on this
sector, and the bosses are not mistaken: there is a large labor pool, an
ambient paternalism that "streamlines" social relations, and a territory
that is developed and developable according to the whims of economic
interests. A final advantage is the port of Dunkirk, which provides a
supply of raw materials extracted from all over the world. The
employment promises are significant: 20,000 jobs by 2030, enough to
silence all political opposition. Neither the Greens-Insoumis nor the
environmental or ecological associations are stepping up to the plate,
yet these gigafactories and their constellation of subcontracting
companies will have a lasting impact on the region, its population, and
the relationship between capital and labor.
Five gigafactories
This term would be a neologism invented by Elon Musk, the electric car
magnate-maniac who, in 2017, was the first to install the world's
largest factory (700 ha!) in the state of Nevada in the United States,
to build batteries (manufactured by Panasonic) and assemble the famous
Tesla. A gigafactory, in addition to its giga-dimensions, is also
defined as a factory capable of producing batteries to store a minimum
of 1 GW/h of electrical energy. Lagging behind the USA and China,
European car manufacturers are creating their own structures and the
North of France is designated as the reference space for the battery.
Currently, two gigafactories are in operation in Douai (59) and
Douvrin/Billy Berclau (62), two will normally open before the end of the
year in Boves (80) near Amiens and Dunkirk (59), finally a last one is
still in the planning stages in Dunkirk. Here is a quick overview of
these companies, the promises made in terms of jobs and production, the
huge investments, a large part of which comes from the State and its
communities - as good managers of capital that they are:
1) The first gigafactory opens in May 2023 in Douvrin on an industrial
zone that previously housed Française de Mécanique, a factory that
manufactured engines for Peugeot and Renault and which has since
relocated to Eastern Europe. Its inauguration brings together the
political and economic elite who hope to make their money from the
battery economy. Bruno Lemaire, Minister of the Economy at the time,
speaks of the "Airbus of the battery" because the project is European,
while Xavier Bertrand, the head of the region, declares: "Here, we are
making the future, we are making confidence, we are making optimism.
This is the real challenge of this factory, it is the real challenge of
the economic and industrial transformation of our region." On the
bosses' side, Carlos Tavares, the new former boss of Stellantis - who is
leaving with a golden parachute of 35 million euros - takes pictures
with the heads of Opel, Mercedes-Benz, and Total. Indeed, the factory
belongs to the ACC group - Automotive Cells Company - which is a French
joint venture created in 2020 by PSA which will become Stellantis, Total
via SAFT (Société d'Accumulateurs Fixes et de Traction - see article on
battery capitalism) and Opel. Since 2021, Mercedes-Benz has been
participating in the capital. 2,000 jobs are promised by 2030 and the
production target is set at 500,000 vehicles/year. The production
capacity is divided into three separate tranches, each capable of
storing 8 GW/h of electricity. 5 billion euros were spent to build this
giant factory (60,000 m² of workshops) which builds battery cells from a
mixture of rare metals NMCL (nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium). A
type of ink is manufactured and sprayed onto micrometer-sized sheets; no
dust is tolerated in the process, giving the workers a "NASA" look,
similar to the manufacturing of satellites or rockets. Of this EUR5
billion, EUR1.5 billion is public money, a nice windfall. And the region
has developed the surrounding area and is preparing the workforce by
opening a training center for battery trades right next door.
2) The second gigafactory opened last year, in 2024, and it is that of
the Renault group, in Douai, next to the Georges Besse assembly plant -
named after the boss at the time, killed by Action Directe. The diamond
brand is joining forces for the occasion with the Japanese group AESC
(Automotive Energy Supply Corporation), created in 2007 by Nissan and
Tokin Corporation, along with the Chinese company Envision, specialized
in wind and photovoltaic energy but also batteries to store the "green"
energy produced. The electric R5 and 4L must be manufactured because
Renault wants to play on the nostalgia of its old star cars to boost
sales. There will also be batteries for the Nissan Micra, the Alpine and
the E-Scenic, the latter being the only one assembled on site for the
moment. Assembly must also take place in another of the group's
factories in Maubeuge. Current battery production is planned to equip
700,000 vehicles per year, but for the moment the figures are more like
400,000. Six highly automated production lines are planned and should
eventually employ 950 people.
3) This year, the gigafactory of the French company Verkor, based in
Grenoble, is due to open in Dunkirk, more precisely in the neighboring
town of Bourbourg. It is to produce lithium-ion batteries. Capital of
more than 2 billion euros is being raised, with additional loans of 600
million euros granted by the European Investment Bank and approximately
650 million euros provided by the State as part of the France 2030 plan.
The Hauts-de-France region is contributing 60 million euros and the
urban community of Dunkirk 30 million euros. The batteries will
initially be intended for Renault group brands, but an expansion of
customers is already planned. As in Douvrin, there will be several
phases in this factory; for the moment, only the first is under
construction. The next two projects, planned for 2028 and 2030, are
currently under discussion, with the public inquiry currently being
conducted by the CNDP, the National Commission for Public Debate. The
projected cost of these two next projects is approximately EUR3.9
billion, 20% of which would come from public subsidies. For its part,
the Grand Port Maritime de Dunkerque (GPMD) is developing the
surrounding area to the tune of EUR31 million. In terms of jobs, 1,200
contracts are promised for each phase of the gigafactory, representing a
total of 3,600 employees.
4) The Tiamat gigafactory in Boves near Amiens is expected to open in
2026 with the promise of 1,700 jobs by 2030. Cock-a-doodle-doo! It's
another French company, but it specializes in sodium-ion batteries,
which are less efficient than lithium batteries, but which, according to
the official line, provide a "sovereign and eco-responsible" solution in
the battery world because they are made from sodium chloride, which is
found in sea salt or underground mines, which France has, particularly
in the east of the country. Research led by the CNRS is improving the
technology, particularly for rapid recharging, promised in 5 or 10
minutes. For the first production line, 25,000 batteries per day are
planned, but they will initially be intended for wind power,
photovoltaics, and data centers - the latter also being very
energy-intensive, especially with the rise of artificial intelligence,
which requires an average of 8 times more energy for research. The
budget amounts to 150 million euros, including 8 million in public
funding (region, Amiens metropolitan area, etc.).
5) The Prologium gigafactory in Dunkirk is still in the planning stages,
but it has just obtained environmental permits and a building permit.
It's a Taiwanese company that initially specialized in smartphone
batteries but is looking to stand out from the crowd thanks to its
ceramic-lithium technology, which has the serious advantage of not being
flammable and also being very light. Construction is expected to begin
in 2026, with production expected to start in 2028. The project promises
to create 3,000 jobs.
A worker at the Douvrin gigafactory
A whole ecosystem!
There's more to life than gigafactories, because building an electric
car requires a before and after in the manufacturing of batteries and
their "cells"-the basic accumulators that make up a battery. Before
that, there's the packaging of raw materials and the manufacturing of
basic elements like the anode, cathode, and electrolyte. At the base, we
find the famous rare earths or specific metals. They come from the most
filthy extractivism in the four corners of the planet: lithium from the
Andes, cobalt from the Congo, manganese from Gabon, and nickel from New
Caledonia, to name just a few of the main producers. This causes
thousands of deaths along the way due to the toxicity of the products or
armed conflicts around the mines, such as in the Congo (see a previous
Courant Alternatif report on extractivism). All these products arrive by
bulk carriers at the port of Dunkirk, which hosts several major names in
the mining sector in its industrial zone.
For the manufacture of cathodes, two factories belonging to the
XTC-Orano group are scheduled to open in 2026. Orano is the new name for
Areva, the French leader in nuclear power and uranium mining in Africa
and Central Asia. XTC New Energy is the Chinese leader in the export of
NMC metals (nickel, manganese, and cobalt). For the electrolyte, the
South Korean company Enchem is present in the Dunkirk ZIP. There are
still gaps in the upstream battery sector, such as in the manufacture of
anodes and separator films between battery cells. There is no shortage
of space at the port, and the GPMD and local authorities are doing
everything they can to attract other companies, but competition between
territories is fierce. Eastern France, another former region undergoing
reconversion, is also playing its cards right to attract capitalists.
The Bolloré group plans to build its gigafactory for "Blue Solutions"
batteries, known as 4th generation batteries with lithium and metal,
around Mulhouse.
Downstream of the gigafactories, there are assembly workshops.
Hauts-de-France is recognized as the leading automotive region in
France, with seven manufacturer sites (Renault, Stellantis, and Toyota)
and three mechanical assembly sites (engines, gearboxes, etc.). In
total, this makes 53 regional companies working for the sector. The
thorny issue of battery recycling remains. For now, five factories are
planned in the region: LiCycle in Harnes; two factories of the
Suez-Eramet group in Dunkirk, which are expected to open in 2025 and
2027; Mécaware in Béthune; and Battri in Saint-Laurent-Blangy near
Arras. A few words about Eramet, the major French mining group-one-third
of its capital is owned by the state. It mines Caledonian nickel,
Gabonese manganese, and the world's largest lithium deposit in
Centenario, Argentina. Of the 50,000 tons of materials that these two
companies will process each year, 90% of the nickel, cobalt, and lithium
will be recycled. 5,000 tons of these polluting materials will therefore
be rejected who knows where. More precisely, for the industrial
recycling process, the batteries are dismantled from the vehicles, then
they are completely crushed, and then there are several chemical and
mechanical processes to separate the different metals. At the end, we
obtain a "blackmass," which is a mixture of the most strategic metals:
nickel, cobalt, graphite, lithium in the form of black powder.
Everything is then refined to be reusable. All this reeks of Seveso
"high threshold" and pollution galore. For Battri near Arras, refining
is delegated to the Moroccan mining group Managem (shareholder of the
company), which will do this in Morocco for a return to Europe. Out of
sight, out of lungs...
Finally, electric cars require special motors, cast from a specific
steel called "electric" with special magnetic properties. To manufacture
it, ArcelorMittal Dunkerque, formerly Usinor, is one of the last blast
furnaces in France, along with those at Fos-sur-Mer. For electric
vehicles, the Indian steel giant is preparing to produce 200,000 tons
per year at its Mardyck site near Dunkirk. The plant is due to open a
new dedicated production line, named "Electryck" for the occasion-a
subtle play on the name of the town. The goal is to equip 2.5 million
motors, and to achieve this, it will need the following ingredients:
2,750 tons of acids, electricity equivalent to the annual consumption of
200,000 people, and millions of liters of water. Behind these colossal
needs and rejections, there are still promises of jobs that everyone
agrees on, with the unions at the forefront (see below). It must be said
that Arcelor-Mittal is in an unfavorable economic situation with chronic
overproduction that has led to the use of technical unemployment for
months. As we can see, the choice of the battery implies profound
transformations of work that must be taken into account to better
understand the period and hope to see hopes of conflict with capital and
class struggle.
A territory put at the service of gigafactories
This is the winning argument of the Hauts-de-France region and its
president, Xavier Bertrand! Come to the North, everything is ready for
your activities: the region and its infrastructure, the population, the
energy.
On one side, there is the old mining basin that had already been handed
over to the automobile industry in the 1960s. As a reminder, the last
coal mines closed at the turn of the 1990s but, just after the battle
for coal and the post-war reconstruction, activity was already in
decline and the political and economic bourgeoisies were preparing the
reconversion of the region. Nuclear energy, Algerian oil, gas from the
Pyrenees and especially the establishment of the ECSC (European Coal and
Steel Community, in 1951) made coal unprofitable. It was then that the
first automobile factories arrived: Française de Mécanique in 1969; a
Simca-Chrysler factory in Denain in 1969; Renault-Douai in 1970 until
the arrival of Toyota in Onnaing, near Valenciennes in 1998.
On the other side, there is the maritime plain of Dunkirk, a vast
polderized area which, after the war, welcomed the principle of
"water-based steelmaking," which consisted of the migration of blast
furnaces to the coast, closer to the arrivals by boat of raw materials:
coal, iron ore. In 1948, the Société des forges et aciéries du Nord et
de l'Est merged with the Société des forges et aciéries de Denain-Anzin
to form Usinor (the Steel Union of Northern France), today
ArcelorMittal. The Dunkirk blast furnaces were inaugurated in 1962 and
brought about a very strong increase in the population. The village of
Grande-Synthe grew from 900 to 25,000 inhabitants in a few years, as did
the other neighboring communes. Today, the GPMD (Grand Port Maritime de
Dunkerque), which extends over 17 km and 7,000 hectares, has 17 SEVESO
"high threshold" sites and is still expanding towards the west - the
east being blocked by the Belgian border!
Inauguration of the Douvrin gigafactory with great people: Lemaire,
Bertrand, Tavares, Pouyanne...
To this must be added the 6 nuclear reactors in Gravelines, which makes
it the largest power plant in France and even in Western Europe. In the
East, we are now all familiar with the other large power plant, the
Zaporija plant in Ukraine. In total, these 6 pressurized water reactors
produce 5,400 MW, or more than 60% of the electrical needs of the
Hauts-de-France region, particularly those of the large Dunkirk
industries, led by Aluminium Dunkerque, right next to the plant, which
needs to do catalysis, which is very energy-intensive. But the
gigafactories have even greater electricity needs, and the "battery
valley" package includes the construction of two EPRs in Gravelines. To
give you an idea, the Douvrin gigafactory consumes electrical energy
equivalent to a city of 800,000 inhabitants, or roughly one nuclear
reactor. For water, it's the equivalent of a city of 20,000 to 30,000
inhabitants. For greenwashing, there's also a wind farm being built off
the North Sea, which will supply 600 MW. This is still insufficient for
the new companies setting up in the region. Thus, the construction of a
very high voltage (VHT) line is planned from the Penly power plant
(Normandy), where two EPR reactors are also being built. When we're told
that batteries are an ecological solution to the environmental crisis,
we're forced to admit that we're being made fun of and that the headlong
rush continues. Not to mention the authoritarianism of such a choice,
the Transition they want to sell us seems radiant...
In terms of infrastructure and population, Hauts-de-France has been the
playground of industrial revolutions for 200 years. There are no
disturbing hills, the motorway network is substantial, thanks to its
position as a crossroads with the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the
Netherlands; there is also a network of important canals leading to the
major ports of the Northern Range (Rotterdam in particular), and a
future Seine-Nord canal is under construction. Socially, the region has
been irrigated by either Christian or socialist/communist paternalism.
The latter was particularly present in the mining basin before being
taken over by the far right, which is now capitalizing on the economic
and social crisis. This configuration explains the total absence of
opposition to these projects (see below). Finally, the Region is
committed to providing labor for the gigafactories by opening training
centers for battery trades, such as in Douvrin or Douai. In Dunkirk,
projects between the National Education system and the Chamber of
Commerce and Industry exist to disseminate the message to children and
encourage support and even future directions. The challenge now is to
make the Noooord desirable. The CUD (Dunkirk Urban Community), led by
Patrice Vergriete (former Minister of Transport in the Attal
government), and urban planning agencies are taking care of this,
notably the AGUR Flandre-Dunkirk, which is marketing the region
extensively to manufacturers and builders, as there will be a
significant need for housing. They are also inventing neologisms to make
this forced industrialization desirable: "industrial symbiosis,"
"circular economy," welcome to the wonderful world of Dunkirk... Culture
also serves to restore the image of a region that is sometimes gray and
rainy. Films such as the "Baron Noir" series and Christopher Nolan's
"Dunkirk" are shot in Dunkirk. There are concert halls and museums,
including the FRAC (regional contemporary art fund) located in the
port's former shipyards.
The giant BYD has acquired its own ship to increase its deliveries of
electric cars outside China.
Political consensus
As we said or implied above, the entire national and local political and
associative landscape sings the praises of the "battery valley."
Everyone agrees, from the right to the left, with the Greens and the
rebels leading the way. Thus, Green MEP Damien Carême, former mayor of
Grande-Synthe, fully supports the green industry: "As an
environmentalist, I am pleased that the EU has finally realized that the
transition to a net-zero carbon economy can both save the climate and
strengthen the EU's sovereignty while creating many green jobs." France
Insoumise also defends green productivism and the opening of new mines
in the region, such as the lithium mines in Allier and Alsace. In the
European Parliament, the rebels therefore support "secure and
sustainable access to raw materials and strategic metals such as rare
earths, essential for clean technologies and reindustrialization."
On the non-profit side, things are no better. Greenpeace and the Climate
Action Network are calling for the emergence of European batteries and
carbon neutrality by 2050. Finally, the unions applaud because the
promises of jobs are undeniable for them. We're talking about around
20,000 jobs. The CGT Arcelor is taking up the energy transition
narrative, which for their company leads to an investment of EUR850
million to "decarbonize" the blast furnaces (sic). It's a classic
job-defense stance. Arcelor is hiring a total of 3,000 people! But there
will surely be a restructuring to come, which will lead to unemployed
workers who will perhaps be directed toward gigafactories, if health
conditions permit. The last argument that could weigh heavily in the
choice of "connected capitalists" is the low probability of strikes at
the port of Dunkirk, unlike others like Le Havre or Marseille. Indeed,
the CGT is in the minority there; it is the CNTPA (National Coordination
of Port Workers and Related Workers) that holds the helm and is proud to
say, to anyone who will listen, that there has not been a dockers'
strike for over 30 years. But behind this alignment of the political
planets, there are the harsh laws of capitalism that somewhat obscure
the beautiful valley under construction.
Crossing the "Valley of Death"
This is the expression used by battery manufacturers to describe the
period. The sector already seems to be suffering from certain chronic
illnesses. First, there is a lack of demand because the sales of
electric vehicles are declining in France, due in particular to the end
of government subsidies such as the ecological conversion bonus, which
was sacrificed in the new 2025 budget. Thus, in Douvrin, the gigafactory
is only equipping 2,500 vehicles, which is "well below the objectives,"
in the boss's own words. The same is true in Douai, where production is
almost half of total capacity.
The automotive sector is also experiencing an overproduction crisis. In
ports like Calais, for example, thousands of imported vehicles are not
finding buyers. Finally, the car is an old thing on which it is
increasingly difficult to make added value. The electric car will have a
hard time breathing new life into this capitalism. The recent customs
duty increases made by Trump further weaken the market, which is highly
dependent on imports and exports from subcontractors working around the
world. Here again, serious clouds are hanging over the valley of the
battery that they want to sell us. By comparison, things are also gloomy
on the ArcelorMittal side (see above), and since mid-March, the site's
main blast furnace has been shut down for 3 months, initially... The
fault lies with competition from cheap Chinese steel, combined with
still-high energy prices in Europe. Already in the region, Arcelor is
scheduled to close two factories by spring, in Denain (Nord) and Reims
(Marne), with more than 130 jobs affected. It also plans to relocate
some of its support activities (order management, marketing, etc.) to
India, and a new steelworks for the group has been announced across the
Atlantic, in Alabama (Trump effect?).
As we can see, international competition is fierce, particularly with
the American Tesla and the Chinese BYD (see article, battery
capitalism). To face it, France, but especially the European Union, are
arming themselves to protect their market. As the general delegate of
ARIA, the regional association of the automotive industry (a lobby!),
says, "we want an open market but a fair playing field," especially
condemning China (forgetting the United States in passing) for heavily
subsidizing the battery sector to be the most profitable on the market.
Last March, the European Commission then proposed a massive support plan
for the automobile industry that is broken down on several levels: the
relaxation of CO2 emissions rules that were to lead to fines starting
this year for manufacturers who did not comply with the new standards,
they obtain an additional 2 years before the hypothetical fines;
encouraging companies to "green" their vehicle fleet knowing that
company cars represent 60% of new vehicle sales; EUR1 billion for
innovation to perfect batteries made in the EU; EUR500 million for the
installation of charging stations throughout the Community; and finally,
the most significant measure, an investment of EUR1.8 billion over two
years in the battery sector with the objective of reducing the price of
the battery from 40% to 20% of the total cost of the car. Will this be
enough to be competitive? Nothing is less certain, but like other
economic pillars, public authorities are ready to subsidize to keep
entire sectors on life support until the next crisis. In any case, the
battery will be made in the region, willingly or not, but at what price?
Because according to the principle of privatizing profits and
socializing losses, we will always be the losers, in addition to perhaps
being their workers.
Margat, April 2025
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4446
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